PUBLIC SCHOOLS MAY TEST STUDENTS FOR DRUG USE

Lexington 3 Hopes To Start Random Drug Tests Next Fall

Students at Batesburg-Leesville public schools might have to submit
to random drug and alcohol tests if they want to participate in
school sports and other extracurricular activities.

Lexington 3's school board is considering a policy to test students
in grades seven through 12 that could begin next fall.

Approximately 960 children are in those six grades, but not all of
them play sports or participate in sanctioned after-school activities.

It is an attempt "to create an environment to convince kids not to
use drugs," superintendent Bill Gummerson said.

Since becoming Lexington 3's top administrator in 2003, Gummerson has
put an emphasis on discipline and promoting better student behavior.

"We hope by doing this, it helps more kids make the right decision,"
he said. "This would be one avenue to help kids resist peer pressure
so they can say with ease, 'I want to play.'"

Trustees are aiming at October to begin the formal process of
adopting the policy in the public schools.

"They should do it," said Patricia Lovette, the mother of a
Batesburg-Leesville High School junior. "The way things are,
nowadays, drug use is getting out of hand."

Lexington 3 schools do not have a drug problem, Gummerson
said.

"We have a peripheral problem," he said. "We don't have the degree of
problem that we're in crisis. On the weekends and after-school hours,
there is a drug culture out there. It's done outside of school hours."

A good example

The policy would target use of alcohol and such drugs as marijuana,
opiates, cocaine and phencyclidine, or PCP. Testing for steroids
would be too expensive, Gummerson said, but he did not rule out the
possibility.

Freshman Austin Drake said he welcomes a testing program.

"Smoking pot makes people lazy," Drake said. "I have a little
brother, and I need to set a good example for him. I don't want him
to become a 'nothing.'"

Coaches and civic leaders urged the school board to include any
student who represents Batesburg-Leesville schools in an official
capacity.

"As a matter of fairness, the consensus was everybody involved in
extracurricular activities ought to be subject to testing," Gummerson
said.

He said the goal would be to test 20 percent of students involved in
extracurricular activities. Each must sign a testing consent form
before being allowed to participate.

Kayla Craps, a senior who plays the flute in the B-L High marching
band, said, "I wouldn't have a problem with it. If that's what they
wanted for me to keep going, I'd do it."

A student who fails a test would receive a two-week suspension from
the activity and be assigned to counseling sessions. A second
violation would trigger a one-year suspension and a third violation
would end a student's participation in all extracurricular activities.

Wesley Thomas II, a freshman football player, said, "I wouldn't mind.
It's important. You have to stay in good health, keep your body clean
and your mind right."

The district would hire an independent testing organization to do the
screening. Plans call for assigning each student an identification
number that would be selected randomly by a computer, Gummerson said.

Testing a rarity

Lexington 2 adopted a random drug-testing program in October 2000 for
athletes who attend Cayce-West Columbia public schools.

Lexington 3 is drawing inspiration from a newer policy used by Marion
1's school system, which acquired a federal grant to begin a similar
testing program a year ago for its athletes.

"We are the only federally funded drug-testing program in South
Carolina," said Judy Wesley, a retired English teacher who wrote the
grant application and is its coordinator.

Wesley said she's encountered no backlash from students, parents or
the Marion community since the program's inception in 2006. Marion 1
tested 147 students during the past school year - at $35 per test -
and had three cases that required disciplinary action, Wesley said.

"We feel it's accomplished what we hoped it would," she
said.

Building character

Lexington 3 Chairman Benjie Rikard said he believes there is
unanimous support among the seven-member board to adopt a testing
policy.

"We just need to get the right language worked out," he
said.

Rikard credits trustee Ralph Kennedy with being the lead advocate for
adopting a policy.

Kennedy said the board has a special responsibility.

"I feel like we are charged with preparing these young people for the
world," Kennedy said. "We have to build character and have them
experience that there are consequences to their actions."

Gummerson anticipates a policy being adopted by December.