DRUG TEST COMPROMISE

Dozens Of People On Each Side Tried To Sway The Board To Adopt Their
Viewpoints On Proposed Random Tests.

WILLIAMSBURG -- The School Board approved a drug-testing program
Tuesday that could reach every middle school and high school student
in Williamsburg and James City County - if they each volunteer to pee
in the cup.

Weeks of brittle public debate became only sharper during an hour of
public comments Tuesday, so the board sidestepped a random-testing
plan that could have been the broadest in Virginia. It would have
tested high school students in sports and other extracurricular
activities, as well as students who get permits to park their cars on
campus.

Board member Mary Ann Maimone offered an amendment to instead have a
voluntary testing program for all students in grades six through 12
that their parents could sign up for. The vote was unanimous and
received applause from dozens of people who spoke at and watched the
meeting.

After more than an hour of public comment on the random-testing plan,
Maimone said, "Someone bravely said tonight: This policy is not
perfect, but please pass it. We absolutely cannot do that and be a
responsible board."

Her amendment upset board member Ron Vaught. "This amendment, I feel,
flies in the face of the little people and is to appease the big
people," he said.

He asked Maimone whether the amendment was hers and not written by
someone else in the group of citizens that organized to oppose the
testing.

Maimone said it was, and Vaught replied, "To succumb to political
wranglings and to water down the policy is to have no policy at all."

The idea for a voluntary program was a late tactic by opponents of the
random-testing plan recommended by Superintendent Gary Mathews. Board
member Joe Fuentes said that opponents who met with him Saturday asked
him to table the plan and that he refused. He said the first time that
he heard people ask for a voluntary program was Tuesday night. Board
members rushed to the compromise.

Fuentes told the crowd, "I think this is a good move. We've received
hundreds of e-mails or letters or faxes. Based on all the comments
we've heard, we've reached a good compromise. We've split the baby in
half. ... Mrs. Maimone has found a workable solution, for now."

The compromise upset those who spoke in favor of the Mathews
plan.

Proponent Ginger Crapse promised after the meeting to begin a petition
drive to make the two School Board representatives from Williamsburg
into elected positions, instead of appointed posts.

One of those representatives is John Alewynse, who said before the
vote, "This issue has divided this community like I have never seen it
divided in the years I've been on the School Board and lived in this
community, going back to the time when the schools were desegregated
and we were going through that trauma."

During the meeting, which included more than an hour of public
comment, Crapse told parents who opposed random drug testing, "You're
making a terrible mistake," and spoke of her experience teaching
students using drugs. Her own son was caught dealing.

"Who did my son deal to? Your children," she said. "I was one of those
parents that was lied to. The students know how to mask it. And they
tell you they've never taken drugs. The really smart ones tell you, 'I
tried it, and gosh, Mom, it wasn't for me.'

"You believe it because the only other choice is really
terrifying."

Marcellus Stepney is a senior at Jamestown High School who
participates in sports, drama and choir. He was one of many students
who packed the meeting room and wore white YES stickers.

"Drugs are becoming a big issue at our school. Even the parents that
are super-involved are clueless when it comes to the drug issues and
peer pressure we face every day," he told the School Board.

Many of those who spoke in favor of drug testing had personal stories
of drug abuse, and several of them cried as they told them.

Rachel Martin, a junior at Jamestown, said she was caught using drugs
in her freshman year.

"Luckily, I was caught, and I've changed my life since then," she
said.

"Parents are naive. My mom was. And she's not anymore."

Jamestown student Evan Bruno said of his peers, "They are treating
marijuana as a basic cigarette. And it is not a basic cigarette." But
many others in the packed room wore yellow NO buttons and spoke of
their concerns about the right to privacy and the idea that people
should be innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.

Gualano Davis said, "I wish I had a button that said YES and NO
because I have mixed feelings.

"But there's no button like that out there."