IF NOT TESTING, THEN WHAT?

Testing high school students for drugs is risky territory. So is ignoring
the all-too-common use of illicit drugs by teenagers.

The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education has voted down board member Jim
Shuping's push for random drug testing. Assistant Superintendent Dr.
Robert Heffern advised against the testing, pointing to legal risks
and studies that found it ineffective at curbing the drug problem.

Maybe so. But if the school system isn't willing to test students for
drugs, what will it do to deter those who might indulge in illegal
drug use? How can it detect those in need of help because they're
already dependent or addicted to drugs?

According to Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention, 66 percent of
local high school students surveyed said drugs are a problem at
school. Thirty-nine percent have used marijuana, 34 percent had
consumed alcohol in the past 30 days and 32 percent have been offered
or sold drugs on school property.

Parents who worry about what their teens are up to on Friday and
Saturday nights must also face up to the dangers that are present
Monday through Friday - at school.

When ABC enforcement officer Ray Shuler presented these numbers in
February, he said they were unbelievable - but, unfortunately, not
unusual. Drug abuse is epidemic across the country. Monitoring the
Future, a national survey that tracks drug use among America's youth,
reports that in 2001 more than half of all students had used illicit
drugs by the time they finished high school. The 2000 National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that of the 4.5 million people 12
and older who need drug treatment, 23 percent are teens.

What's a school board to do? Linda Freeze, the school system's
director of health education, has said that the best way to fight the
problem is to raise the public's awareness and convince parents to pay
more attention to their children's activities. That has been part of
the Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention's approach.

Drug testing would go even further to get everyone's attention, and
it's been done in this system. About a third of South Rowan High
School's students agreed six years ago to submit to random drug
testing, a program begun when Dr. Alan King was principal there. The
goal was to check athletes and non-athletes alike for drugs that might
be dangerous to their health. The checks were seen as a way of
discouraging drug use and countering peer pressure to just say yes.
Knowing that the school might check their urine gave students a
compelling reason to say no. No way.

If the tests yielded false positives or sparked debates over civil
liberties, those problems did not become public. King, now an
assistant superintendent in the system, feels it was a worthwhile effort.

The school board doesn't like that approach. So it needs to figure out
what other action can bring peace of mind to the 66 percent of
students who believe drugs are a problem at school. The teenage brain
still faces crucial development - development that illicit drugs can
interrupt. Stress over illegal drug deals in the hallways doesn't
help, either.