DRUG TESTING GETS OFF TO A ROCKY START

We weren't among the ones in favor of the drug testing of students in
Transylvania County schools.

Some students and parents complained that the policy of random testing of
students in extracurricular activities unfairly targeted athletes. Others
were concerned that the testing was an invasion of privacy.

The School Board voted in July to institute the policy, becoming only the
third in the state to do so.

We're sure that parents and the School Board hoped that the results of the
drug tests would show that drug use isn't a problem at Brevard and Rosman
high schools. Wrong.

In September and October the school system tested 40 students who
participate in sports or other after-school activities. Four tested positive.

"We anticipated having no one the first time," said Bo Williams, the school
system's testing and policy director. "To have four was a real shock."

Why the shock?

School Board members themselves were responding to parents who testified
that they thought drugs were a problem in the high schools.

Brevard High principal Dave Richardson told the School Board last week that
in a recent school survey 72 percent of teachers and 50 percent of parents
thought that substance abuse was a problem at Brevard High School.

The School Board was told that of the four who tested positive for a banned
substance, two chose to quit the extracurricular activity. The other two
underwent counseling, passed a second test and were allowed to return to
sports or club activities.

The first round of tests cost $997.

"There isn't anyone in here who wouldn't spend $900 if we knew it would
help a kid get off drugs," Williams said.

Of course not.

But it's still not clear whether the random drug testing is helping kids
get off drugs or whether it's just making kids forgo basketball, track or
math club.

If parents and school administrators are shocked that drug tests confirmed
drug use in high schools, we expect students and teachers are not.

There is no substitute for students setting an example for their peers. Nor
is there any substitute for parents, teachers, coaches, principals and
guidance counselors who are closely engaged with students being vigilant
about those who may be outcasts and subject to escape through drugs.

The better we are reaching them, the better we will be at ridding the
schools of drugs.

The result so far from testing is that two students caught using drugs quit
the team or an after-school club and two got back on the straight and
narrow. By our math, that's only a 50 percent success ratio.