SCHOOL OFFICIALS, WARY; PARENTS, STUDENTS MIXED ON DRUG TESTING

From Greater Lowell school officials to students, just about everyone
agrees drugs on school grounds are a major problem.

But is random drug testing the fix?

"I think it's a terrible precedent," said Joe Mendonca, a member of
the Lowell School Committee. "We're supposed to be teaching
(students), not treating them like criminals.

"I think they're trampling over our constitution and civil rights,"
Mendonca said.

Of a handful of students, parents and officials questioned, most
denounced the concept. But the idea is being pushed by Salem
Superintendent of Schools Herbert Levine, who, following his teenage
son's battle with drug use, has called for random testing in his district.

The reliability of random drug tests is one potential problem, said
Lowell School Committee member Jackie Doherty. If a student tested
positive, but the result later proved incorrect, the district could
easily have a lawsuit on its hands.

"And you might get some student (racial) profiling," she added. "That
concerns me."

Drug-sniffing dogs have descended on Lowell High School twice in the
last two years, in surprise drug raids meant to catch guilty students
in the act. The school is locked down, and dogs sniff students'
lockers and book bags while students sit in classrooms. Both times,
the raids found only traces of drugs.

"I would be for it because they're against the law. If they're doing
drugs together they're going to pressure other people, too," said Vera
Chhouy, 17, a Lowell High student. "Some kids skip school to do drugs.
That would make them stop skipping school."

It may also be the only way to really pinpoint who has the drug
problem, said Dunstable parent Ann-Marie Wright.

"I understand the whole privacy theory. But you can have dogs and
search, or people go thorugh the lockers, and... you could end up
talking to a child who it isn't even theirs," she said. "If we're
going to do it and do it right, (random drug testing) would be the
way. Then you can accurately target which child is the one we need to
help."

But if a school district truly has a drug problem, turning to random
testing will only confirm that not solve it, said Littleton School
Committee Chairman Roland Gibson.

"It's sort of like having students wear uniforms. Unless someone is
doing something (to correct the) behavior, wearing a shirt and tie
isn't going to fix the problem," he said.

Gibson is against the concept, but would be willing to entertain a
discussion regarding the matter with the School Committee, as well as
the students.

"I'm a strong advocate of engaging people who are having the problem
in this case, the students in a conversation," he said.

If such a conversation were to take place in Lowell, high school
student Jillian Wilber, 17, would be ready. Her health class recently
debated whether random drug testing is appropriate.

"I don't agree with it. It's an invasion of privacy," she said. "I'd
cooperate, but I don't think it's right."

Sun intern Vivienne Belmont contributed to this story.