BOARD SAYS NO TO RANDOM DRUG TESTS FOR STUDENTS

EAST SPENCER - Students in the Rowan-Salisbury School System will not
be subject to random drug testing in the immediate future, a divided
school board decided Monday night.

Members of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education voted 5-2 Monday
night not to pursue random drug testing of its high school students
beginning with the 2005-2006 school year.

Board member Jim Shuping made a motion to begin such testing, and
fellow board member Kyle Huffman seconded Shuping's motion. But the
remaining members voted against it.

Shuping said he'll bring the issue back up again in January when three
new members are seated on the board. He said he feels a need to find a
means of cracking down on drug use in Rowan County's high schools.

"I sense quite a bit of skepticism," Shuping said prior to Monday's
vote as board members discussed random drug testing.

Even Huffman said he didn't necessarily agree with such testing, but
said, "I keep hearing from faculty members with suspicions."

Monday's vote followed a meeting this past spring where Shuping had
previously brought up the issue of random drug testing of high school
students.

At that time, the board instructed Assistant Superintendent Dr. Bob
Heffern to study how other school systems have implemented drug
testing policies and report back to board in September.

After months of study, Heffern said he reached one conclusion: It's a
complicated issue.

He noted that the most comprehensive study of the matter was completed
in 2003 by researchers at the University of Michigan. Those
researchers, Heffern said, determined that random drug testing did
nothing to deter students' use of drugs.

He said students who use drugs quickly become adept at masking their
tests. Another problem, Heffern said, is the number of
"false-positives," results that show a student has been using drugs
when he hasn't.

He said random drug testing of the student population as a whole is
illegal, that students have to basically volunteer to be tested.
Heffern said some school systems make participating on an athletic
team a voluntary step that brings with it a voluntary agreement to be
part of a group whose members are randomly tested for drugs.

But he said other systems have expanded the test groups to students
who participate in any school activity, everything from the Glee Club
to JROTC.

The cost of each drug test typically ranges from $25 to $30, making
the undertaking a fairly expensive one, Heffern added.

"The question is," he asked, "is this an issue the citizens of Rowan
County feel strongly enough about to endure the costs?"

He also noted that many parents and students oppose such testing on
principle. "There are lots of civil rights issues that school
districts run into," Heffern said.

Even if a student tests positive for drug use, those results aren't
turned over to law-enforcement agencies, he said. Students who test
positive, Heffern said, are offered counseling and other forms of aid.

"It's all done from the aspect of getting help for the students," he
said. "No information is given to law enforcement."

A majority of board members said they voted against Shuping's motion
because of a lack of data concerning the benefits of random drug testing.

"I'd certainly want to know a lot more than I know now," board member
Dr. Bettie Starr said. "I'd have to have reason to believe the
expenses would be effective."

Board Chairman David Aycoth agreed.

"There's not enough data to convince me at this time," he
said.

Board members did vote 6-1, however, to have Heffern continue tracking
the effectiveness of random drug testing in other school systems.
Shuping voted against that motion.