VISTA HIGH SCHOOLS DELAY DRUG TESTING

VISTA ---- The city's two main high schools are delaying the start
of random drug testing for students involved in extracurricular
activities, school officials said Thursday. The program was to have
begun this week.

The program was postponed after parents and activists complained
that too many students would be subject to the testing, said Vista
High School's athletic director, Pat Moramarco, who is in charge of
the program at that school.

Moramarco said he expects the school to start testing students who
participate in competitive extracurricular activities by the end of
the month. No date has been set and it's still unclear exactly who
will be tested, he said.

Gayle Olson, district director of student support services, said
that Vista Unified School District administrators will get together
next week to discuss the program. She declined to give specific
reasons for the delay.

"We're just working on a couple of things," she said Thursday.

Dave Whiddon, athletic director at Rancho Buena Vista, declined to
comment on the delay. Calls to Rancho Buena Vista High Principal
Richard Alderson and Vista High Principal Larry White were not
returned Thursday afternoon.

Under the plan approved Feb. 16 by Vista school board trustees, the
district initially planned to test students involved in a host of
school activities that ranged from yearbook class to marching band
to football, as well as work experience programs.

Other groups, such as campus clubs that don't require students to
maintain a certain grade-point average to join, would not be subject
to random tests.

Now the scope of who would be tested is likely to shrink further,
Moramarco said.

"More than likely, we're going to cut a few things out" of the
testing, he said. Students involved in noncompetitive activities,
such as the Associated Student Body, will probably not be tested,
Moramarco said.

School district administrators say they believe most students and
parents support the program.

Some parents, however, have said it violates teens' right to privacy.

"I'm still not done fighting it," said Royce Ramswick, a vocal
opponent of the testing whose daughter attends Rancho Buena Vista.
"I just think the whole program is bogus."

Ramswick was the only parent to speak on the issue when the Vista
Unified school board voted unanimously last month to start the
program. The testing will be paid for with a federal grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.

Between the two schools - Vista High and Rancho Buena Vista -
about 2,500 students were initially expected to be in the random
testing pool, though it is unclear how changes will affect the
number of students.

Moramarco said district officials need to more clearly define which
activities are "extracurricular" and which are "co-curricular" -
a distinction that will help determine which groups of students can
legally be tested and which cannot.

In general, co-curricular activities are those that take place
during school hours, while activities are considered extracurricular
if they take place before or after school.

These definitions at Vista Unified's two comprehensive high schools
are complicated because most extracurricular activities, such as
football practice, also meet as a class for which students are graded.

A student can still get credit for the extracurricular activities as
a class without signing waivers allowing drug testing, though they
wouldn't be able to compete, Moramarco said.

"Our district is a little different that way," he said. "By that
definition, everything we do is co-curricular."

Though some groups will probably be cut out of the testing,
Moramarco said he thinks all of the sports teams will be included
because he said it has become widely accepted to test athletes for
illegal drugs.