BREATH-TESTING TECHNOLOGY GOES TO HIGH SCHOOL

A Growing Number Of Principals Are Buying Devices To Check For Alcohol - Or
Drugs

School dances will never be quite the same at Ottawa's Sir Robert Borden
High School since a fiasco one night last year.

That night, more than a few drunken students staggered through the school
doors, some so intoxicated that they were vomiting on the floor before the
music had stopped. A slew of inebriated students, at least the ones who
were caught, were marched down to the principal's office where parents were
called and suspensions handed out. And the disgusted teachers on duty vowed
never to volunteer at a school function again.

Principal David McMahon thought about cancelling dances, but it seemed a
shame to allow the drinkers to spoil the fun for the rest of the 1,100
students.

In the end, he did what a growing number of Canadian high schools are
doing: He bought a small breath-analysis machine to test students for
alcohol, just as the police check for impaired drivers.

In an age of safe-schools laws and zero tolerance, schools are turning to
technologies normally the preserve of the police -- and venturing into new
legal turf as they do.

Along with machines to check for alcohol, some schools are buying a new
saliva-testing device that can check for signs of drugs, from marijuana to
hardcore crystal meth.

"We went from one dance where we had quite a few suspensions to zero
suspensions," said Mr. McMahon, who consulted with his school's student and
parent councils before buying the breath-analysis machine.

Now, students at Sir Robert Borden hand over their ticket and blow into a
disposable straw connected to the breath analyzer before being admitted to
the dance. Those who refuse to take the test are turned away.

Unlike the full-fledged Breathalyzer test police administer, the school
machine registers only the presence of alcohol, not a concentration that
could be used in court.

But Ontario's Safe Schools Act outlaws drinking on school premises and
exacts at least a suspension for an impaired student. And with the legal
drinking age in the province set at 19, even a whiff of alcohol is enough
to nail an underage high-school student.

While there has been little outcry from parents or students, the rising
numbers of schools testing students for alcohol and drugs are treading in
murky legal turf. Canadian courts have placed strict limits on drug
testing, allowing it only in narrow circumstances. As a question of legal
liability, breath analysis would appear to go beyond the safety measures
schools are reasonably expected to follow. Alberta's Privacy Commissioner
recently urged schools to turn to less intrusive measures to check for drug
use. And the Manitoba Human Rights Commission is about to adopt a policy
that frowns on the use of breath analyzers unless schools can show it is
absolutely necessary.

"I would think that would be an awfully difficult standard for schools to
meet," said Dianna Scarth, executive director of the rights commission.

Still, studies have found a slowly climbing rate of alcohol and drug use
over the past decade among students. A 25-year study of Ontario students'
drug habits by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that the
use of Ecstasy and hallucinogens such as LSD are dropping. But binge
drinking, pot smoking and cocaine use are on the rise, students are smoking
marijuana at younger ages, and fears about the risks of drug abuse are
easing, the study found.

It shows at school dances. "There was a lot of overdrinking," Trishna
Patel, a Grade 12 student and co-president of Sir Robert Borden's student
council, said of the infamous dance last year. "There were issues of people
tipping and toppling all over the place. They weren't safe enough to be in
the school."

At Wetaskiwin Composite High School south of Edmonton, school dances have
been scrapped altogether this year even after principal Wayne Neilson
bought the hand-held analyzer.

While the breath test worked for a while to discourage students from
drinking, it soon became obvious that glassy-eyed students had traded the
liquor bottle for drugs. So the dances were cancelled.

"We just decided we're not interested in providing an event where kids use
the school dance to engage in drinking and using drugs," Mr. Neilson said.

But the analyzer still gets used. More than a few times, he has invited
students into his office after suspecting they have indulged in a "liquid
lunch." No one is forced to blow into the machine; but for those who
decline, their parents are called and they are sent home.

After the school conducted an anonymous survey of its 800 students, Mr.
Neilson was shocked to discover the number admitting to drinking and using
drugs, though he has no illusions that some students experiment with
illicit substances.

Still, he has resisted buying the saliva-testing machine. While parents
have supported the breath analysis, looking for illicit drugs is another
matter.

"Parents typically think part of the high-school process is going out and
having a beer with the boys on the football field after school. That's
almost normal, expected behaviour," Mr. Neilson explained.

"But drugs scare the hell out of parents, for the most part. If we have
some kind of test that would suggest their son or daughter might be doing
drugs, but we don't know how valid the test results are, you could just be
in a hell of a mess with folks. So we've steered clear of that."

At Sir Robert Borden, Mr. McMahon also has a new drug-testing machine
stored in his desk drawer. He hasn't used it, and isn't sure he will. "It's
a little bit more invasive and a little bit more time-consuming to
administer. I might use it one day, I don't know."

But if there is reluctance to use the machines, it does not appear to be
dampening sales. Gary Macahonic's Kamloops-based company distributes the
alcohol- and drug-testing technology to schools for its Canadian
manufacturer, Alcohol Countermeasure Systems Corp. Over the past several
years, he has sold hundreds of the $150 machines to schools, from coast to
coast. And in the year he has been selling the saliva-testing devices, more
than 100 schools have snapped them up.

"It's been very well received," he said of the $150 saliva-tester. "Our
customers have come to us and said, 'We've got the alcohol things. Have you
got anything for drugs?'