DRUG TESTS A REASON TO SAY NO

GREENWOOD -- As the school year comes to a close later this month, the
district will have completed the first year of its random drug-testing
policy.

Greenwood High School Principal Jerry Efurd said the testing provides
students with one more reason to stay away from drugs.

"Kids who truly didn't want to use -- it would give them an advantage
when it came to peer pressure," he said. "There are some students who
are going to experiment, and there's nothing we can do about that. We
understand and we wish it wasn't so, but some students are going to be
faced with situations. If we give them one more tool or reason to say,
'No,' -- that might happen."

Students in grades seven through 12 who drive a vehicle to campus or
who are involved in extracurricular activities face random drug testing.

"It wasn't like a big deal," said Angela Bennett, a 10th-grader who
was randomly tested three times during the 2003-04 school year. "I
didn't really care because I don't do drugs or anything."

Greenwood is the first school in the area to implement random drug
testing. Van Buren schools are studying information and plan to talk
with local citizens later this summer about whether to implement a
random drug-testing policy.

Efurd said school district personnel studied many policies throughout
the state before providing the school board with a proposal last year.

"We felt like the concerns regarding drugs were growing," Efurd said
about why the district implemented the policy. "We felt like we were
hearing about more use, but the big reason was because we felt like
this would give kids an advantage."

Eleventh-grader Weston Passmore, who has not been tested this year,
said initially a few students were concerned about their privacy
rights, but now students talk more about getting out of class if they
are unable to immediately produce a test sample.

The first time drug testing occurred at the school, there was a lot of
talk by fellow students about it, Passmore said. Students watched as
other students were called out of class, and upon their return they
would ask them, "Did you pass?"

Nowadays, there's not much talk about it, said Passmore and
12th-grader Matt Clay, who has been tested once this year.

Passmore and Clay share a laugh about the free bottles of water
students receive to produce a sample.

The company that tests the students selects them at random from a
computer program that matches the students with numbers. Those numbers
are sent to the school, where they match the students' numbers, Efurd
said.

"We just step in the teacher's door and ask for the student," Efurd
said. "It could be for a conversation. It could be for a detention;
they don't know. They leave and go with us. We escort them down to the
testing facility on campus."

Efurd added that he or Vice Principal Jim Garvey escort the students
to properly identify them.

A school nurse is there along with three people from the testing
company, who test the samples immediately.

"Numerous tests have tested positive but it turned out to be negative
because of medication the student was on," Efurd said. "We actually
notify the family, and the family brings the medication in. When the
student is brought in, they are asked if they are on any
medications."

The few students who have tested positive for illegal drugs have had
marijuana in their system, Efurd said.

If a student tests positive, he or she is suspended from all
activities for 14 days and is asked to seek counseling. The student
has to test negative at the next drug test to resume activities.

Passmore said he thinks the drug testing helps Greenwood's reputation,
and it gives students a reason to decline drugs when they know they
might be tested the next day.

"We can say we're a drug-free campus," Clay added. "The learning
environment is free of any inhibitors."