DRUG SURVEY'S VALUE DISPUTED

Schools Mull Search Policy

As the Groton-Dunstable Regional School Committee moves toward a vote
on a policy allowing random drug searches at the region's middle and
high schools, Superintendent Mary Jennings this week released results
from a 2004 risk survey showing the percentage of students saying they
have been offered or obtained illegal drugs at the high school has
dropped significantly since 2002.

Jennings told School Committee members on Monday that 27 percent of
high school students said in the 2004 Youth At Risk survey that they
had been offered, sold, or given illegal drugs on school property. The
survey was conducted last spring. This is a drop from 45 percent in
the 2002 risk survey and 35 percent in the 2000 survey.

The superintendent said the decrease came about because of antidrug
abuse programs that have been instituted in the community, such as the
Groton Dunstable Alliance for Youth. Fear among students that searches
may occur at the high school has also contributed to the change, she
said.

But one student told School Committee members at Monday night's public
hearing on the policy that many students had answered questions on the
2004 survey in a way that would downplay drug and alcohol abuse at the
high school so administrators and police would not bother them about
what they are doing with their lives.

"Students don't want to be hassled," said the student, whose name was
not available. He said he believes prior survey results -- which led
to a search of the high school parking lot and the effort to bring
about more searches -- were used against students.

"It is important that the survey be used behind the scenes rather than
as a weapon," said the student.

Jennings did not respond to the student's claims and could not be
reached for comment following the Monday night meeting.

Meanwhile, another student, senior class president Mike Fredrickson,
told committee members Monday the Groton-Dunstable school community
has done a lot to build respect among students and faculty and
administrators.

"Students shouldn't see searches as a lack of respect, but as another
way to build on the strength of our community," Fredrickson said.

The Monday night session was the last public hearing on the proposed
drug search policy before a vote on it by the School Committee next
month. As drafted by the board's policy subcommittee, the drug search
policy would allow random searches at the high school and the middle
school by police using drug-sniffing dogs.

School Committee chairman Alan Vervaeke said Jennings, who opposes
random drug searches, had received permission from the four other
school districts that participated in the 2004 survey to release the
drug availability results. The rest of the survey results, which cover
grades 9 to 12, will be made public next month.

Vervaeke said he has mixed feelings about the 2004 results presented
by Jennings Monday.

"Until last night, the fact that the number went down would have meant
to me that all of the work that is being done, the ongoing discussion
about drugs in the schools, is working," said Vervaeke, who supports
drug searches in the schools.

"But after last night, I believe that many students are not being
honest on the survey because they do not want to be hassled over their
choices," he said. "This leads me to believe that the actual number is
likely higher."

Chuck McKinney, the School Committee member who initially suggested a
search policy, said the results presented by Jennings will not
dramatically affect the final outcome.

"I don't think that we hang any one policy on a single result," said
McKinney. "We assess and evaluate the entire system and do not lean on
the survey."

McKinney said he was encouraged by the drop in students who said they
could acquire illegal drugs on campus, but that the unidentified
student's comments Monday made it bittersweet.

"It is difficult to take one student's observations as fact," McKinney
said. "Who really knows if students made a conscious decision to not
tell the truth? Every time survey results are released, some people
wonder if they are accurate for that very reason."

Next week the policy subcommittee will consider the information from
the Monday night hearing and draft a final version of the policy,
which will go through two public readings before the School Committee
before the final vote.

The School Committee has been working to craft the policy since last
December. The effort to cast a policy and the ensuing debate over
random searches came after the risk survey in 2002 showed alarming
levels of drug use by high school students and drug availability at
the high school.

Concern over the results of a survey in 2000 had led to the formation
of the Groton Dunstable Alliance for Youth and to the only drug search
ever conducted at the high school. In April 2003, police officers
searched cars in the high school parking lot, finding a trace amount
of an illegal substance in one car -- not enough to prosecute the student.

But the 2002 survey results, which were released last December, showed
increases in drug use and availability at the high school and led
School Committee members to move toward adopting a search policy.

One year later, McKinney, who is on the policy subcommittee, said the
three-member panel is in the final stages of tweaking the drug-search
policy. He said the subcommittee will meet Wednesday to discuss
whether the policy will mandate various specifics of the drug searches
- -- such as frequency -- or whether that will be left up to district
administrators.