VOLUNTARY DRUG-TESTING KITS WILL STILL BE AVAILABLE TO PARENTS THIS SCHOOL YEAR

Going into a brand new school year, Sampson County educators said the
implementation of a voluntary drug program, that can be utilized
through the anonymous distribution of home-testing kits, has been
successful in its aim even though just a fraction of the kits were
picked up from county schools last year.

Becky Jackson, director of middle grades education for Sampson County
Schools, who helped to spearhead the voluntary drug-testing program
called SASSY (Substance Abuse Screening Saves Youth), said she wished
for more participation in the service, which she said can continue to
be funded this school year.

Since making the program available last November, just 33 kits have
been distributed out of the 500 that grant funds put into each of the
county's middle and high schools, Jackson said at a special Board of
Education meeting last week.

School and local officials have stressed that the service is
completely confidential and one that can be administered by parents in
the privacy of their own homes.

"It's an extremely unique project," Dr. Stewart Hobbs, superintendent
for Sampson County Schools, noted at a recent Sampson County
Methamphetamine Task Force meeting.

The superintendent said the goal of the program has been met solely
through having the service, providing the tests so that parents might
take advantage of their availability.

"I think it's been a very big success, beyond our wildest
imagination," said Hobbs.

DeLeon Wilks, 4-H extension agent, and J.W. Simmons, director of the
Lifelong Learning at Sampson Community College and a leader of the
Meth Task Force, each have called SASSY a partnership that acted to
assist concerned parents.

The program has been a collective effort between the Sampson County
Schools, Cooperative Extension 4-H Office, Eastpointe Behavioral
Healthcare and the Sampson County Methamphetamine Task Force. SASSY
was able to be made possible because Eastpointe had some grant funds
for prevention efforts at the community-based level in the form of a
block prevention grant covering Sampson, Lenoir, Duplin and Wayne counties.

School administrators do not request the names of those parents
choosing to take advantage of the service, recording only that a drug
testing kit, available through school counselors, has been requested
and taken.

Jackson said that, while only a small percentage of the kits were
taken home by parents, those did turn into a handful of referrals for
drug prevention efforts with teens.

"Out of those 33 kits, we did have some referrals to some counselors,"
said Jackson.

She noted that while some parents have chosen not to take advantage of
the free service, it could be that those parents "didn't feel there
was a need" to administer such a test.

Jackson, Wilks and Simmons have all stressed that the program was not
meant to be a policing effort. The tests are not required or random,
but offered solely for parents and guardians to administer if they so
choose, Wilks said. "They have the benefit of knowing," he has noted.

"It might not have materialized any further, but at least they were
aware," Hobbs remarked.

Along with the drug-testing kit itself, there is an information card
on which possible intervention options following a positive test are
given.

Jackson has said that the idea for the home drug-testing kits came
from her work on the Ninth Block Guidance Program in the county's four
middle schools and the push for increased drug awareness at the
middle-school level.

Jackson said that the mere presence of the kits, and youngsters
knowing that their parents can choose to pick up a free drug testing
kit, can act as a deterrent in itself.

"Just the fact that parents can get them, I still feel it's a
deterrent for kids to know that their parents do have the
opportunity," Jackson remarked. "I do feel like we're deterring some
of the behavior just for the fact that it's out there."

She said that the drug testing kits and overall drug awareness offered
to students through the Ninth Block Guidance Program, have been very
positive.

"Some positive attitudinal changes have been taking place," said
Jackson, who made a special note of the impact had through the
methamphetamine classes. "That's something that we do want to continue."

Any parents wishing to know more about the test or pick one up should
contact their child's school counselor or call Eastpointe Behavioral
Healthcare, at 1-800-913-6109.