SCHOOL TO TEST FOR DRUGS

Wesleyan To Start Screening In Fall

NORCROSS - After two years of planning, Wesleyan School is ready to
implement a drug-free campus initiative that includes the random drug
testing of high school students and faculty members.

The private Christian school in Norcross will begin screening the
students and teachers for drug use when classes resume for the
2009-10 school year, said Marc Khedouri, dean of students.

"This is truly about helping kids," Khedouri said. "From our
perspective, it gives our kids a really good reason to say no (to
using drugs). ... It's an added measure of accountability to help
them make better decisions."

Khedouri said the program was designed for two reasons: prevention
and early intervention.

"We're not looking to punish students as much as we are to help them," he said.

Each week, some ninth-through 12th-grade students will be randomly
selected for an expanded nine-panel drug test, Khedouri said. The
Strategic Prevention Education Compliance (SPEC) Group will collect
and test the samples.

Faculty members will also be tested because the school asks them to
be role models in every area, Khedouri said.

If a student tests positive, what happens next will depend largely on
the student's willingness to be forthright, Khedouri said.

Students at every school across the nation have substance abuse
problems. Wesleyan's internal surveys indicate students' drug usage
is low, Khedouri said.

"But how much is too much? Is 2 percent, 5 percent, 10 percent a
problem?" he said.

Some independent schools in Georgia that have implemented random drug
testing say the program is successful.

First Presbyterian Day School in Macon, which randomly drug tests
middle and high school students, started its program in 2001, said
Pat Rabun, dean of students. The school tests 15 students and three
teachers twice a month. From 2001 to 2005, the school saw an average
of three positive tests per year. Since 2006, none of the tests have
indicated drug use.

Rabun said he overheard one student say that a friend declined to
smoke marijuana one weekend because of the school's drug testing program.

Rabun said he's "not that naive" to believe none of the students have
used drugs in the past few years. The school has about 600 middle and
high school students, and only about one-third are drug tested each year.

"But if we have reached one kid, the program's successful," he said.

When the drug testing program was first implemented, Rabun said
parents were suspicious and skeptical. So during the first year,
participation in the program was voluntary.

"Parents have bought into it," Rabun said. "It's a great proactive
way to partner with them to keep their kids drug free."

At Wesleyan School, officials held three town hall meetings to give
parents the opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns, Khedouri said.

"I know it's not without controversy and not everyone agrees," he
said, "but it's incumbent on all of us in the independent schools to
take the lead and do things in the students' best interest."