OFFICIALS, STUDENTS JUST SAY NO TO DRUG TESTING

A state plan to fund drug tests for students in public schools is a bad
idea, Cape Ann educators and students said.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey announced last week the state will give schools
$100,000 to voluntarily test students for drug use. Local reaction to the
plan has been mostly negative, with some questioning the effectiveness of
drug testing and others wanting more specifics on how it will work. "It's
a waste of time," said Joseph Sullivan, principal of Gloucester High
School. "It's an absolute waste of time. You are showing total disregard
for all students in the school by doing it. ... Basically, what you're
telling kids by drug-testing them is they're a problem to be managed. And
they're not a problem to be managed. They're a resource to be developed."
Paul Murphy, assistant principal at Manchester Essex Regional High School,
said the plan raises many questions: How would schools decide which
students to test? How often would testing occur? And what would a positive
test mean for a student?

"There's so much gray area that I think (Healey) needs to be a lot more
specific," Murphy said. "This kind of reeks of political posturing."
Gloucester police go to a school about once every two weeks for a
drug-related call, said Lt. Michael Lane, the department's head detective.
Most of the reports come from the high school, but police also respond to
O'Maley Middle School. "It's an occasional problem that comes to light,"
O'Maley Principal Kevin Hutchinson said.

Nearly all drug-related calls from the schools involve marijuana, and most
students are caught with marijuana cigarettes or quarter-ounce bags they
plan to sell to classmates, Lane said.

"The amounts of drugs seized are not substantial, but the schools have a
zero-tolerance policy, and rightly so, and they want a police presence
there," he said. Marijuana use became a major issue at Manchester Essex
last school year when there were several on-campus arrests for marijuana
possession. This year there has been only one drug arrest at the school,
in November. It sends a message to students when the school involves police
in such incidents, Murphy said. "Kids witness their peers, other students,
being taken out in handcuffs," Murphy said. "They say, 'Whoa, they're
really serious.' That has really been a deterrent."

Gloucester High also has strict rules regarding drug and alcohol use, and
the school will use Breathalyzers to test prom-goers for alcohol this year.
But, Sullivan said, there is one thing that's even more effective in
keeping teens safe: parental involvement.

"The parents are the best deterrents of all," he said. Lane credited
parental involvement and drug-education efforts, including television
campaigns and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, for keeping teen
drug use from becoming a rampant problem in Gloucester. The city's schools
no longer have DARE, but current high school students participated in the
program when they were younger.

"The current thought is drug use is not cool," Lane said. "DARE has finally
paid some dividends, even though they're bashing it now." A group of
Gloucester High sophomores playing hackey sack outside after school
Thursday agreed drug use is not a major problem. "It's just another thing
to stress about," Autumn Kane said. "It's another way to get into trouble."

Even if drug use were more prevalent, testing in school wouldn't be the
answer, the students said.

"They need to put funding where it's needed, like updating textbooks,"
Jayna LaFontaine said. "It's such a waste of money."

Principals, students and the American Civil Liberties Union have raised the
question of privacy issues regarding Healey's plan. Drug testing works best
on identified users to make sure they get clean, Murphy said. Identifying a
user, however, can be difficult.

"You can't pick and choose who you're going to test," Murphy said. "I can't
say, 'Oh, this kid's got long hair, let's drug-test him.'" There are also
questions about the testing method. Hair follicle tests are the most
accurate, but urinalysis is more common.

"There are a lot of ways in which people can make these drug tests turn out
negative," Murphy said.

A $9.1 million supplemental budget bill the governor's administration filed
earlier this year would fund the testing program. That budget would also
provide more detoxification services for addicts and police resource
officers for targeted cities and towns.

O'Maley had a school resource officer up until two years ago. The officer
had "strong, meaningful and productive" connections with students,
Hutchinson said - connections that don't exist with whichever officers
respond to a call at the school now.

"That's a piece we really miss," Hutchinson said.