SCHOOL BOARD OKS DRUG POLICY

Student Athletes To Submit To Random Testing

BARTOW - A random drug testing program aimed at Polk's high school student
athletes got the green light Tuesday in a 6-1 school board vote.

Board members approved a policy outlining the intents and procedures of the
program, which is scheduled to begin later this month at seven area high
schools. Families of Polk County Executive Director David Hallock said the
project will help prevent early drug use among teens, and could lower the
county's rate of drop-out students.

"This is a community-supported program. We're trying to save kids, not
punish them," he said.

Polk's three-year drug testing program, paid for by a federal grant, will
eventually encompass 15 of the county's public high schools and one private
high school.

The program works like this:

* Student-athletes will be selected by their Florida High School Athletic
Association roster numbers and be tested at random. District officials hope
to visit each school three to five times during each athletic season and
test roughly 40 percent of its student athletes.

* Under proposed guidelines, student-athletes who fail a drug test will be
suspended from school sports until they complete 10 days in an assessment
program, administered by the Mark Wilcox Drug-Free Schools Program. If the
student complies with all recommendations from the assessment, he or she
will be allowed to return to athletics on a probationary status, which
lasts until he or she leaves/graduates from a Polk high school or quits
school sports.

* Upon subsequent offenses, the student-athlete will face suspension from
school sports for a full year, in addition to suspension from the current
athletic season.

* Student athletes who alter their urine samples or refuse to be tested
also will be immediately suspended from sports for a full calendar year
thereafter following the end of the athletic season.

* Samples are collected at school and tested twice by the county's drug
court. If a sample comes back positive, the results are sent to a lab for
further tests, at which point they are evaluated by a medical review
officer (a physician contracted by the district).

The drug testing project has not had a smooth road to approval.

Some school officials have slammed the program for not testing for steroids
or other performance-enhancing drugs, despite its emphasis on student-athletes.

And nearly everyone who spoke at Tuesday's meeting said that drug testing
should be expanded to all students (which can not be done
constitutionally), or at least to all students in extracurricular activities.

"I support testing across the board," said Gabrielle Brinson, 17, a senior
at Lake Gibson High School. "I notice that a lot of the kids who do drugs
aren't really interested in doing anything else."

Board member Kay Harris Fields, who cast the dissenting vote, also said
that student-athletes should not be singled out by the program.

But fellow member Hazel Sellers contended that athletes put other students
at risk when they are on the playing field. She said Polk's program will
have to do for now.

"This is a large county," Sellers said. "And this is the first step."