MIDWAY BOARD EXTENDS DRUG TESTING TO MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Starting next fall, Midway Middle School's seventh and eighth graders
will join district high school students in being randomly tested for
drugs.

The Midway Independent School District Board of Trustees unanimously
voted Tuesday night to extend the testing for students in
extracurricular activities to include middle school students.

Drug testing started in the fall of 2005 at Midway High School,
funded through a three-year federal grant. As part of grant
requirements, the school board needed to incorporate drug testing of
seventh and eighth graders, Midway superintendent Randy Albers said.

"The intent of (the drug testing) is to try to promote our
extracurricular programs as drug-free and try to give our students an
incentive to stay away from drugs," Albers said.

Midway is currently the only district in the area that conducts such
testing.

Out of the 1,900 Midway High students, 1,100 are involved in
extracurricular activities that include sports, band and choir.

During each round of monthly testing, 10 percent of the 1,100
students are randomly tested for drugs. So far, the high school has
done five rounds of tests, beginning in September, with 100-110
students in each round.

Of the 550 tests conducted so far, 15 were positive for drugs
including prescription medication and marijuana.

School officials use a drug test which scans for cocaine,
amphetamines, marijuana and opiates, Albers said. The urine test
doesn't scan for steroids. For this reason, students involved in
sports receive a separate steroids test.

"Not every student is scanned for steroids," Albers said. "The random
steroid tests are focused on athletes because (the steroid tests are)
five times more expensive than the other test."

While drug testing is financed for the next two years through the
grant, the school will foot the bill for the testing after the
three-year grant runs out, Albers said. Testing at all three schools
will cost the district approximately $30,000 per year.

If a student's test returns positive with no medical explanation,
such as prescription medication, the student is required to submit to
the next three testing periods and is suspended from extracurricular
activities for a year, Albers said.

If the student returns another positive test, the student must
participate in drug counseling before returning to extracurricular
activities. If a student receives a third positive drug test, the
student will be banned permanently from all extracurricular activities.

So far, Albers has heard "absolutely no feedback" from parents at the
middle school, but when drug testing at the high school was proposed
last year, Albers said parents were supportive of the testing.

Middle school parent John Williams agrees.

"I think any time drug testing is involved with kids, it's a good
idea," Williams said. "The first priority is the parents watching
kids, but there are good parents everywhere who miss things as well."

Still, other parents and family members have reservations.

"I really think it's a shame that they're mistrusting young people,"
Midway Middle School grandmother Corinne Olson said. "I think there's
drugs going on, but I don't see it here. I don't know if it's a good
thing or a bad thing."