CRISIS CALLS FOR RANDOM DRUG TESTING

In a Utopian world, a child's alcohol or drug use would be addressed by
parents, churches, courts, law enforcement and substance abuse experts. But
we don't live in Utopia - we live in Williamsburg/James City County where
none of us have gained ground on a major health crisis: the widespread use
of alcohol and illicit drugs by our students.

Consider the 2002-2003 WJCC survey statistics applied to actual enrollment:
of 1,361 total students in the sixth and eighth grades, 190 kids (one out
of seven) were drinking at least once a month - what substance abuse
experts call "chronic usage." And 114 kids (one out of 12) were chronic
users of illicit drugs. Keep in mind we're talking about youngsters 11 to
14 years old.

Of the 1,342 students enrolled in ninth and 12th grades, a whopping 501
(more than one out of three) drank alcohol monthly and 281 (one out of
every five) were chronic monthly users of illicit drugs. Shockingly, our
present violations policy "caught" on average just five each month - in the
whole division.

If you still doubt that drug and alcohol abuse in our schools is a problem,
just ask our educators, coaches, administrative staff, clergy, family
counselors, substance abuse agencies, and finally our high school athletes
who formed their own student task force seeking solutions and action.

Fortunately, an effective diagnostic tool is now available for use in
schools to help make possible the early detection and treatment of kids
using addictive substances. Random student drug testing is legally
authorized by federal and state law, and was approved by the U.S. Supreme
Court for competitive extracurricular participants, first in 1995, and
again in 2002. Just as public school divisions test for tuberculosis, the
court concluded that confidential random testing was not a violation of
Fourth Amendment privacy rights because it's designed to maintain public
health and safety rather than to inflict punishment.

The court majority rulings stated: "The need to prevent and deter the
substantial harm of childhood drug use provides the necessary immediacy for
a school [drug] testing policy."...

"The nationwide drug epidemic makes the war on drugs a pressing concern in
every school."...

"[This student drug testing program] seeks to discourage demand for drugs
by changing the school's environment in order to combat the single most
important factor leading school children to take drugs, namely, peer pressure."

Who else agrees? More than 2,000 petition-signing concerned citizens in
this community, of which 500 were students (including the entire Jamestown
football team); the high school athletic booster clubs, head coaches,
athletic directors and principals; the Lafayette High School PTSA Council;
the commonwealth's attorney; the county sheriff; the 2003 Virginia General
Assembly; the Virginia Department of Education; at least five Virginia
public school divisions and hundreds of others across the country; the 2001
U.S. Congress; the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; and
President Bush.

After reviewing Internet research of pro and con arguments (including that
the study most often cited by opponents has been discarded as unscientific
and fatally flawed by many experts such as National Drug Control Policy
Director John Walters), we interviewed schools that utilize random testing
to get their direct feedback. Here's what they told us: It works for their
students and it can work for ours.

Random testing would not replace our zero tolerance response to drug- and
alcohol-related misbehavior on school property which results in suspension
or expulsion, referral to police, suspicion-based drug and alcohol testing
and elective treatment. Instead, random testing complements that policy by
providing kids with a proactive tool that makes them accountable and
empowers them to say no. It offers confidential screening which utilizes
extracurricular consequences as a deterrent rather than criminal or
academic punishment, and it provides kids with a more compassionate way to
obtain treatment.

We must heed research which concludes that teenage drug and alcohol use is
the single biggest cause of addiction in this country today. Faced with
staggering WJCC usage patterns that confirm the ineffectiveness of our
current programs, we found no compelling reason why we shouldn't give
random testing a try. It works for thousands of students and has helped
alter drug and alcohol cultures in schools, private industries and
government sectors across this country. It is irresponsible to sit idly by
while this pervasive, dangerous health crisis among our school-aged youth
continues to worsen. The time has finally come for decisive action.

McHenry is co-chair of the Parent Task Force. Frye is task force co-chair.
Bottles, Student Task Force co-chair, is a junior at Jamestown High school.