FEDS, STATE STAFF MULL DRUG TESTING

A rumor among students at my high school was that the assistant
principal had a list of those he suspected were into graffiti, smoked
cigarettes and got high.

I don't think he needed a list. It was a small school. How would you
get listed and what would he do with it anyway?

Today, President Bush has proposed another way to fight teen drug use.
He has asked Congress to fund $23 million for random drug tests in the
schools. But state Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, calls that
paranoid. With the support of the ACLU, the state PTA and Attorney
General Bill Lockyer, he has introduced legislation that would stop
such tests in the state.

Vasconcellos said Bush's proposal requires money that can be better
spent on educational materials or on teaching prevention, instead of
making campuses a hostile environment where students are afraid of
their instructors.

"The more you make it a police state, the less they learn," the
senator said. His office estimates each test costs $35 to $70,
depending on the specific drug tested for.

"They're so loony," he said of the Bush administration. The two-term
senator, who has spent three decades in the Assembly, doesn't have to
take a drug test himself to be in the Legislature.

His bill, SB 1386, has passed the state Senate and moved on to the
Assembly. It will be amended to allow for voluntary programs.

Jennifer de Vallance, spokeswoman for the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said Bush's proposal could be funded in the 2005-06
budget.

The Supreme Court in 2002 ruled it was constitutional for students in
extracurricular activities to be tested, but the court was silent on
the general population, she said.

Top administrators from her office have also likened testing to
preventative medicine, like vaccinating children before they get to
school.

"Substance abuse and drug dependency is a disease, and kids should be
inoculated from the disease of addiction," De Vallance said.

She said studies she's seen show that schools with high drug use rates
before they instituted testing saw a large decrease after they started
doing random drug tests.

But Kathy Moffat, a legislative advocate for the state PTA, cites
another study showing random tests have no effect. She also said that
without suspicion of drug use, random testing amounts to an
unreasonable search.

"Schools should be a place where the focus is on education," she said.
Attorney General Lockyer also opposes the tests.

"Random drug tests appear to be a waste of money," said Hallye Jordan,
a Lockyer spokeswoman.

A year and a half ago, the Dublin school district considered random
drug tests for middle and high school students participating in
extracurricular activities. The board shot down the proposal after
parents protested.

Dublin schools superintendent John Sugiyama said drugs can affect the
safety of students when it comes to sports.

But, he said, "Whether a student in the chess club is a risk if a
student is on drugs is probably not going to be as compelling."

Straight A's appears every other week during the summer. Send
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Education Team, P.O. Box 8099, Walnut Creek, CA 94596, or to
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