MORE ROBUST DIALOGUE WILL HELP STUDENTS

The size of the audience has increased with each of the three August public
forums on the proposal to test students for illegal drugs in school.

The best news out of this Tuesday's forum was that Superintendent Michael
E. Longo decided the proposal needs much more discussion.

And the people in the discussion need to be the people most affected by
random drug-testing in public schools -- the schoolchildren and their
parents who would be asked by the school to give permission for their child
to be tested.

Mr. Longo wisely decided that there should be forums in September and
October before any program is adopted by the school committee.

The mayor and superintendent should also consider creating an advisory
committee that includes the people affected who were left off the original
advisory committee -- schoolchildren, their parents and others in the city
who have been deeply involved with drug prevention and treatment.

The few high school children who attended this week's forum had good
questions to ask about the program. If there are more children and parents
involved in the dialogue, they will have even more questions and may help
create a stronger proposal to attack the problem -- drug use and drug
addiction among youth in New Bedford.

The community needs to take some approach to the problem. Simply defeating
the current proposal is not a good option.

A newly configured advisory committee should be allowed to come up with the
best possible program.

And the committee should not try to make the program fit an available grant.

If New Bedford comes up with a strong drug prevention program, officials
will be able to fund it.

This is a far better way to solve a problem than trying to make a grant fit
a problem, without holding an inclusive dialogue.