COMMERCE SCHOOLS CONSIDER STUDENT DRUG TESTS RANDOM SCREENING PROPOSED

Break out the swabs. Commerce City Schools officials could begin to
randomly drug test students' saliva - whether or not they show signs of
using illicit substances.

If the Commerce Board of Education approves the proposed policy at its
April meeting, students could be tested as early as next year.

"There's not a problem that's been pinpointed for us to initiate (random
drug testing of students)," Schools Superintendent Larry White said.
"There's a drug problem in our society. Anyone who won't admit that has
their eyes in the sand."

Under the proposed rule, middle and high school students will be randomly
selected by a third-party company for an orally administered drug test. A
school nurse will give the test.

"The whole idea behind the policy (is) giving our kids a good reason to say
'no'" to drugs, White said, noting that students can use the policy as an
excuse to avoid peer pressure.

Students with privileges, even as common as driving to school every day,
would be subjected to the tests. Punishment escalates for each failed test.

A first offense will land a student in a conference with his or her parents
and drug counseling. A second offense will net a 45-day suspension from
privileges, but the student can apply for reinstatement after he or she
passes another drug test and takes drug counseling.

The school board based its proposal on schools in Calhoun and Thomaston
that already have similar policies in place. The board will consider the
rule at its regular meeting in March and could adopt the policy in April.

Lori Moyer, a school nurse at Calhoun High School, says the drug testing
policy there, similar to the one proposed in Commerce, has been successful.
Calhoun officials say students in their school system also can use the
testing as a shield against peer pressure to take drugs.

"Even the ones that are caught, the parents, I think, are grateful for the
wake-up call," Moyer said. "It helps them be a little more aware of what's
going on with their child."

School officials on Wednesday couldn't say how many Calhoun High students
tested positive for drugs. However, the number is small, Principal Brad
Brown said.

Under Commerce's proposal, parents and students would have to agree to drug
testing before students could participate in extracurricular activities.
Each test would cost the school system $32.

Random tests of students are not effective in curbing student drug use,
said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance.
Drug testing policies might unintentionally steer students away from
positive extracurricular activities, he said.

"They end up not trying out for the chess clubs or the football team or
whatever," Piper said.

Parents should have the right to opt their kids out of testing, and
students who test positive or decline to take tests should not be punished,
Piper said.

The two other school systems in Jackson County - Jefferson city and the
Jackson County schools - do not randomly drug test students.

In Jefferson's school system, for example, schools officials can search a
student if they suspect he violated a school rule. Drug sniffing dogs can
be used at the school or at a school function to search a student,
according to the school system's policy.

Likewise, Jackson County's school system has used drug dogs in the past to
search for drugs. However, school officials have not considered a policy
like the one proposed in Commerce, Superintendent Andy Byers said.

"We actually are looking with interest at what Commerce is doing," Byers
said. "But we haven't made any decision on that."

Jefferson Superintendent John Jackson would not rule out the possibility of
implementing such a proposal. However, like the county school system, there
is not currently such a proposal on the table, he said.

"I think it is something we would be interested in learning about," Jackson
said.