PENNSYLVANIA BUCKS DRUG-TEST TREND IN SCHOOLS

Lack Of Money, Trampling Of Rights Cited

Politicians from the Florida Everglades to the California coast are trying
to test high school athletes for every drug from steroids to marijuana to
cocaine.

In this climate where urinalysis is becoming as common as freshman algebra,
various Pennsylvania school districts have scaled down their drug-testing
programs or eliminated them altogether.

Lack of money and fears that random testing is trampling students' legal
rights are the main reasons state districts are resisting the national trend.

Belle Vernon, once stung by critics who said its football players were
artificially muscular, used to test every athlete and cheerleader for
steroids and recreational drugs. But Athletic Director Jim Bush said the
tests cost over $100 apiece, so budget-conscious administrators shrunk the
program to a fraction of its original scope.

For legal reasons, the Franklin Regional and Canon-McMillan districts have
stopped all drug tests that targeted students because they played sports or
drove to school.

Administrators believed they were violating a recent Pennsylvania Supreme
Court ruling that said schools cannot conduct "suspicionless" drug tests
aimed at athletes, students in extracurricular clubs and those who hold
campus parking permits.

"We certainly had no evidence that those students were using drugs," said
Canon-McMillan solicitor Francis DiSalle, who recommended that the district
scrap drug tests that targeted entire groups.

But a handful of other state districts, notably Seneca Valley and Delaware
Valley, require drug tests of all students who go out for interscholastic
sports.

Delaware Valley, the district that was sued in the Supreme Court case, also
mandates drug tests for every student who drives to school, as well as
those in band, National Honor Society and every other club in which
students participate voluntarily.

Perhaps the only Delaware Valley students not being tested for drugs, the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court said, were "slackers" who did not play a sport
or join an activity. These uninvolved students may be more likely than
athletes, debaters or musicians to use illegal drugs, yet they were not
subject to providing a urine sample at school, the court said.

Candis Finan, Delaware Valley's superintendent, said her district on the
New York and New Jersey borders has found no court decision clearing the
way for random drug tests of students who are not in sports or
extracurricular activities.

But, she said, U.S. Supreme Court decisions have decreed that
student-athletes and those in activities can be tested en masse. Given
those rulings, she said, Delaware Valley feels comfortable in targeting
entire groups, especially athletes.

"They are looked up to as the leaders of the school," Finan said last week.
"We are going to hold them to a higher standard."

Much of the district's drug-testing philosophy is based on a U.S. Supreme
Court ruling that said athletes at Oregon's Vernonia High School could be
randomly tested for drugs. But in that ruling, the court contended Vernonia
student-athletes were "a major source of a documented and active drug problem."

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court received no evidence of any drug problem in
Delaware Valley, much less that boys and girls on athletic teams had
trafficked in drugs.

State Supreme Court justices upheld the lawsuit against Delaware Valley and
sent the case back to Pike County Common Pleas Court for litigation.
Despite the court's position that suspicionless searches are wrong,
Delaware Valley has not changed any of its drug-testing policies, nor does
it intend to, Finan said.

She said the school board considers drug testing essential to keeping
students safe and healthy. More important, Finan said, the district can
document a drug problem, dating to the 1998 arrests of two students who
were caught on campus with heroin. She said one was involved in
extracurricular activities.

Delaware Valley, 73 miles from New York City, has seen an influx of
newcomers since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Given the growth and
increasing big-city ties to the district, Finan said, the school board
views drug testing as a means of "a village raising a child."

"Parents like this program. The only complaint we've had is by the couple
that sued us," she said.

The complaining parents, Louis and Mary Ellen Theodore, challenged the
drug-testing policy after it was implemented in 1998. One of their
daughters had to give a urine sample because she was in the National Honor
Society. The Theodores considered the drug-testing program intrusive and
unreasonable.

Their daughters both graduated from college before the state Supreme Court
ruled against suspicionless searches last November. The Theodores decided
Friday to withdraw their lawsuit, saying the cost of opposing a public
school district with vast resources was prohibitive.

Nonetheless, their lawyer, Robert Isseks, said Delaware Valley's random
drug tests are on shaky ground.

One Western Pennsylvania district, Seneca Valley, has embraced testing
procedures similar to Delaware Valley's.

Seneca initially spent $40,000 a year for drug tests of athletes and
students who drove to school. It has added another $20,000 to the budget
for urinalysis of students in certain extracurricular activities.

"We have seen all types of students become involved with drugs," said
Seneca school board president Dean Berkebile. "Some have argued that there
is an undue focus on a certain group. I instead prefer to look at it as
every student who is in the pool has the perfect excuse to stay away from
drugs."

Berkebile said he was aware that other districts had dropped drug testing
because of the state Supreme Court's denunciation of suspicionless testing.
"We have chosen to stay the course until a more definitive ruling is
given," he said.

For a time in the mid-1990s, Belle Vernon had Western Pennsylvania's most
exhaustive high school drug tests, though only athletes and cheerleaders
were subject to the scrutiny.

Bush, the district's athletic director, said football coaches specifically
asked for steroid testing because opponents had sniped about the size and
strength of Belle Vernon's players. Bush said Belle Vernon was merely in
one of those cycles where it had excellent athletes, some of whom would go
on to play at the University of Michigan and the University of Pittsburgh.

School board members liked the idea of steroid tests. They also authorized
urine screenings for recreational drugs.

But testing some 300 student-athletes and cheerleaders each year soon broke
the budget, Bush said. Belle Vernon now randomly tests 5 percent of its
athletes and cheerleaders for recreational drugs. A handful of those
students also receive the more expensive test for steroids.

Bush said Belle Vernon has not considered modifying its program since the
state Supreme Court ruling. Athletes and cheerleaders have never resisted
the tests, he said, but they occasionally wonder why they alone are singled
out.

The man who pushed for Belle Vernon's program, former football coach Gary
Dongilli, now says it was a colossal mistake.

"I'd never again advise a school system to do it," he said. "It became a
political thing. There was supposed to be confidentiality with the testing,
but there wasn't."

Dongilli said at least one school board member gained access to test
results and spread word about the findings throughout the town.

He did not recall any positive tests for steroids, but said there were
occasional instances in which athletes were found to have used recreational
drugs.

Bush said neither he nor anyone else in the district could comment on test
results.

The Derry Area district modeled its drug-testing program after Belle
Vernon's. It also targets only athletes and cheerleaders.

Dave McNichol, Derry's athletic director, said he was comfortable with
randomly testing those groups. But, he said, in a rural area such as Derry,
alcohol might be a bigger problem and could be going undetected.

McNichol said Derry has had only three positive drug tests for 550 athletes
and cheerleaders tested in five years.

Greater political momentum for random testing of students, particularly
high school athletes, exists in the Sun Belt. State legislators in
California and Florida have introduced bills to add steroid testing to
screenings for recreational drugs.

Even with a state Supreme Court ruling, Pennsylvania districts are at odds
over whether random tests are wise.

Random testing was considered problematic enough for the Shaler Area School
District to decide against it.

North Hills has long had a drug-testing policy, but it does not target any
group or use random tests. Rather, it tests only on the basis of suspicion,
such as a student with slurred speech.

Lawyers in the Franklin Regional district said suspicionless testing was
struck down by the court. That led the school system to kill its random
testing program before it was a year old, said Superintendent Pamela Pulkowski.