MIAMI HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TO FACE RANDOM DRUG TESTS

MIAMI They tell stories of classmates showing up for school stoned or
drunk, of smelling marijuana in the halls, of seeing drug dealers lurk on
the edge of their campuses. At parties on the weekend, teenagers here say,
the scene gets worse.

"Drugs are everywhere," said Alex Annunziato, a senior at Coral Park High
School. "They're easy for any student to get, and what they try is
extensive."

"This is still a major issue," said James Peacock, a senior at North Miami
High School. "I can walk outside of school almost any day and smell the
pot."

For years, the public schools here in Dade County have tried to fight that
problem the way most districts across the country do, by spending more
money on drug counseling, increasing security and imposing tougher
penalties on students who are caught.

What the county is on the verge of doing now is much more drastic: It is
planning to give high school students random drug tests for the first time,
beginning next year.

The controversial new policy, approved recently in a close school board
vote, would make Miami's schools the first in the nation to take such a
dramatic step. While other districts search student lockers for drugs, or
in rare instances seek testing for a student found carrying or selling
them, officials here intend to go far beyond that.

And it is creating an uproar. Many parents support the testing, but many
students and even some educators are calling the idea excessive, expensive
and impractical.

The debate is yet another stark illustration of how the role of public
schools, especially in large cities, is expanding in a way that few
imagined a generation ago. And many other school districts that share Dade
County's desperation to steer students away from drugs or help those
addicted to them are paying close attention.

"What they're attempting to do is intriguing," said Gus Steinhilber,
general counsel of the National School Boards Association. "Very few school
districts around the country have even considered this step, but they're
very curious to see what happens."

Most public schools have been reluctant to introduce widespread drug
testing because they fear it violates student rights, specifically the
constitutional ban against unreasonable searches. The Supreme Court has
supported mandatory drugtesting policies only in limited cases involving,
for example, police officers or student athletes.

Dade County school officials contend that the policy they are developing
will withstand legal challenges for several reasons. First, no student will
be tested unless a parent gives a school permission well in advance. Also,
a student whose test results show evidence of drugs will not be subject to
criminal or school penalties.

Tests to find marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs will be conducted
off school grounds by medical professionals. Only parents would receive the
results, along with recommendations for treatment plans, which they can
heed or ignore. Schools would just get general information such as how
many of their students, without names, tested positively for what
substance. Students also would not be chosen for the tests based on faculty
suspicion of their behavior, but rather by a lottery system.

Those who support the policy say it will ensure that no ethnic groups will
be targeted by the tests and will force parents to play a vital role in the
process.

"This is a tool for parental empowerment, and I think it has the potential
to deter drug use in our schools," said Renier Diaz de la Portilla, the
school board member who proposed the plan. "This has to be our
responsibility, because even the best academic programs are not going to
make a difference if students are caught up with drugs."

But other school board members consider the new policy too invasive and say
that it risks turning the public school system into a police state. The
American Civil Liberties Union also is campaigning against the idea, partly
over concern about its legality but also because ACLU officials doubt that
random testing will solve the drug problem in schools.

"It's silly," said Andy Kayton, the legal director of the ACLU's Florida
chapter. "It focuses on all the students who aren't the problem. I don't
see how anyone can seriously believe this kind of program meaningfully
addresses the situation we're dealing with."

Parents worried that a child of theirs is using drugs already can have the
child tested through a Dade County program that costs about $25.

Some officials say the school board's move will duplicate that service.
Others argue that random testing is unnecessary because the antidrug work
schools are doing may be showing progress.

An annual national survey of the drug habits of teenagers, which has just
been released by researchers at the University of Michigan, suggests that
the use of marijuana, for example, is leveling off among junior high
students after five years of increases.

Nevertheless, drug use among older teenagers has not declined.

Other recent national studies have reached similar conclusions about the
problem. And parents remain concerned about it. This month, in a national
poll conducted by Harvard University's School of Public Health, parents
were asked to name the most serious concern they had for their children.
They cited drugs more than any other issue.

Dade County school officials say they intend to begin the random drug
testing next year as a trial program in a few high schools. Parents have
not been sent permission forms. Fewer than 10,000 of the school system's
82,000 high school students could be subject to the random tests, at an
estimated cost of $200,000. Public schools here now spend about $4.5
million a year on drug education. Extending drug testing to every high
school in Miami would require several more million dollars a year.

Last year, 284 students in the county's schools were arrested for drug
possession, a slight increase over the previous year. To some parents and
students, that tally offers only a slight indication of the scope of the
drug problem in schools.

Diaz de la Portilla said he decided to propose random testing because the
proliferation of drugs among students was a dominant concern of parents
during his campaign for a school board seat last year. "They really want to
see us doing more than we're doing," he said. "It's not enough anymore to
say our job is just teaching."

But some parents say they have mixed feelings about the idea. "Anything
that helps the situation, we welcome," said Carlos Seales, the president of
Dade County's council of parent associations. "The way they want to do this
now is more acceptable than what they first proposed. But we still have
questions. Some people feel ethnic groups could be stereotyped, and some
feel this responsibility should only be for parents anyway."

In schools nationwide, the threat of drugs and crime is continuing to
change how students attend class. Many of them now walk through metal
detectors every day, or are subject to random locker searches for weapons.
Principals are so worried about drug sales that some ban students from
bringing medicine prescribed by physicians to school without authorization.
At some Miami high schools, students have to wear identification tags in
order to make intruders more obvious to faculty members or security aides.

To students here, the latest step looms as one more hassle. And many of
them doubt that it will be worth the school system's effort and expense.

Requiring parental consent for the tests, some say, is a mistake. Since
students with the most serious drug problems often lack parents with much
interest in their lives, many of them may not even be in the testing pool.
Students worry the tests will most affect those who use drugs rarely. Other
critics say the tests will be pointless if school officials do not also
work hard to get students the treatment they need.

"You won't solve anything just by pointing fingers," Annunziato said. "It
could be a waste of money, and from students I'm hearing fear. Some of
them just roll a joint on the weekend now and then. They're scared they'll
be branded as addicts by the tests."

Student leaders, who are being included in the final planning for the
tests, are urging the the school system to guarantee treatment a costly
proposition. They also want all students to be informed that even if their
parents make them eligible for a random drug test, state law still gives
them the right to refuse to take it.

"Maybe this will make more parents aware of the problem," said Peacock,
"but I just don't think this will really work. There's only so much that
schools can try to do."

Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company