OFFICIAL TOUTS SCHOOL DRUG TESTS

But Local Critics Call Random Screenings Costly, Ineffective

A top White House drug policy official pushed educators here Tuesday
to adopt random drug tests for students to combat illicit drug use.
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"This is a health issue. This is a safety issue," Mary Ann Solberg,
deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told
attendees of the agency's final School-based Drug Testing Summit at
the Hyatt Regency hotel.

"We test for scoliosis. We test for other things," Solberg said. "Why
is testing for drugs any different?"

Critics showed up at the summit to answer that question. They
included Karen Deiro, a local member of the Drug Policy Alliance, a
national group that opposes random drug tests for students. Deiro
dismissed random testing as "ineffective and expensive."

"I think money would be better spent on education in all areas," Deiro said.

To bolster her argument against random drug testing in schools, Deiro
noted how the Janesville School District recently scrapped its random
drug testing program because it was too costly and wasn't yielding
significant results.

But Pewaukee High School Principal Marty Van Hulle said he would urge
colleagues to adopt random drug testing as his school did two years
ago, saying it was a "reasonable and practical" thing to do.

He said roughly 75% of the student body is subject to the random
tests, which courts have ruled are only legally applicable to
students who receive certain privileges from schools, such as
extracurricular activities or on-site parking. So far, he said, a few
students have tested positive for drugs, and at least one came up
clean during a second test, a result Van Hulle described as positive.

While critics say drug-testing programs can cost up to $30,000 a year
for a school, Van Hulle said his school has spent $3,200 on the
program each year and used federal funds earmarked to combat drug
use, not local funds or money that could have been otherwise used for
teacher salaries or textbooks.

The drug control summit on Tuesday drew about 75 educators.

Solberg said results from random drug tests should be kept
confidential, and the consequences should not result in criminal
prosecution, but in counseling.

Other speakers ranged from a professor of educational leadership, who
dismissed the argument that drug testing drives students away from
extracurricular activities, to a toxicologist who said people
erroneously believe they can pass drug tests by taking substances
designed to prevent testers from detecting drugs.

The toxicologist, Sonja Hoppe of Southwest Laboratories in Arizona,
said certified drug-testing labs have the knowledge and wherewithal
to determine when a human specimen contains a substance meant to
conceal the presence of drugs.

Marissa Venturi, a junior at Francis W. Parker School in Chicago,
attended the summit as a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy,
a Washington, D.C.-based group that considers random drug tests one
of many "unjust and counterproductive invasions of students' rights
and privacy."

Venturi called random drug testing "degrading" and said it would make
her reluctant to participate in extracurricular activities - a common
concern expressed by opponents.

But Joseph McKinney, a professor and chairman of the educational
leadership department at Ball State University, presented data from a
survey of principals who reported that random drug tests resulted in
either no change or even an increase in the number of students
participating in extracurricular activities.