NO DECISION ON DRUG TESTING YET

School Board Looks At Lynchburg Example

HARRISONBURG - The City School Board heard another presentation about
random student drug testing during its meeting Tuesday, but it did not
vote on the measure.

The school board began exploring random testing in June, after
learning of alleged drug use by Harrisonburg High School football players.

Craig Mackail, supervisor of research, planning and instruction for
city schools, made the presentation Tuesday night. In doing so,
Mackail provided information about local drug-testing agencies and
talked about how other school divisions, namely Lynchburg, handle such
testing.

Three local agencies - Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Emergicare and
Labcorp - offer drug testing. Each agency does urine-sample drug
testing and would require students to take the tests at its facility,
Mackail said.

RMH charges $45, Labcorp $45.50 and Emergicare $49 for each test. Each
agency tacks on an additional fee for steroid tests, he said.

If the school division implements random drug testing, a
to-be-determined percentage of students who participate in
extracurricular activities would be tested monthly or weekly, Mackail
said.

In Lynchburg, 5 percent of student athletes are randomly tested each
week during the season until all athletes are tested. And a team is
selected at random each week until all teams are tested.

According to Lynchburg's policy, a student who tests positive the
first time is banned from participating in sports until a retest shows
a negative result. After a second positive, athletes cannot
participate in sports for 365 days, and, after a third, they can
consider their high school athletic career over.

In addition to briefing the school board on the local drug-testing
agencies and Lynchburg's policy, Mackail also discussed drug use among
city school students.

Citing a 2006-07 student survey about drug, alcohol and tobacco use
among students, Mackail said the division's annual illicit drug use
among students is 6.5 percent below the national average. More than
350 students in eighth, 10th and 12th grades completed the survey.

After listening to Mackail's presentation, board members made a few
comments, but no one was ready to proceed with a motion.

"The topic is certainly a very contentious, very complex one that
should include community input," said Tom Mendez, vice chairman of the
School Board. "It's hard to get your hands around how big is the
problem ... how significant is the problem in our schools."