W-JCC SCHOOLS URGED TO START RANDOM DRUG TESTS

A Parent-Based Taskforce Calls On The School Board To Consider Changing Its
Policy At High Schools To Combat Substance Abuse

JAMES CITY -- A group of parents called the Random Student Drug Testing
Parent Task Force wants the Williamsburg-James City County School Board to
consider a proposal to randomly test students for drugs.

At a work session of the School Board Tuesday night, taskforce co-chair Dee
McHenry cited continuing drug and alcohol violations as part of the
inspiration for the plan.

In 2003-04, there were 37 drug and alcohol violations at the high schools.
So far this year, there have been 14 violations in the division.

"None of our kids are exempt from having to cope with this culture of drugs
and violence," said Sandy Fagan, executive director of Bacon Street Inc., a
nonprofit organization that operates an outpatient treatment program for
adolescents and a prevention program through partnerships with the public
schools.

The task force endorses parental notification and immediate referral for
treatment and counseling for the first offense, followed by additional
screening. Subsequent strikes could result in temporary suspension of
extracurricular privileges, escalating to longer-term suspension of privileges.

The parents want the random testing to start with high school athletes.
According to Bacon Street, 30 percent of the more than 200 people admitted
for treatment in 2004 were student athletes.

Four coaches and two students told the board they support the plan.

The proposal would be less punitive and more geared toward intervention and
treatment than the current W-JCC policy, which slaps offenders with an
11-day suspension for the first offense and expulsion for the second.

The random testing would emphasize intervention and treatment. Instead of
waiting for kids to show up drunk or high, said McHenry, the plan would
target where usage starts.

Random student drug testing would give students a socially sanctioned way
to say no to drugs and alcohol, even in those awkward situations where they
are surprised by the drinking or drugs at a party.

The parents on the taskforce said they would like to see the program
started as a pilot with athletes, but eventually expand to the middle
school level.

If the School Board approves the initiative later this spring, W-JCC would
be one of at least six school divisions in the state to adopt random
testing and the first in Hampton Roads.

When she was in ninth grade, Jamestown High School junior Christine
Bottles, 16, was shocked to learn that people she looked up to were
involved in illegal activities. It wasn't just the kids who skipped
classes, but members of the National Honor Society and all-district
volleyball players whom she saw drinking or drugging when she was just a
freshman.

Bottles has seen kids smoking pot in the school parking lot and at parties.

"It's a much bigger problem than some people care to admit," she said.