PLAN PERMITS TESTING OF STUDENTS FOR DRUGS

School Districts Differ On Random Drug Testing Of Students

DE Soto Is Studying The Idea, But Other County Districts, Including
Shawnee Mission, Say They Don't Plan To.

Although the De Soto School District is considering random drug
testing of students, other Johnson County school districts, including
Shawnee Mission, express no interest in such a program.

De Soto is exploring a proposal to require random drug and alcohol
testing for middle and high school students who participate in
athletics or other school activities, or high school students who use
school parking lots.

If the district eventually adopts the plan, it would be the first
district in the county to do so.

The district is only in the initial stages of studying the issue. The
proposal was developed by a committee of parents, staff and students
who have been meeting since November.

The school board recently told the committee to seek advice on the
legal ramifications of random testing policy. It also asked the
committee to analyze how much the program would cost to implement and
run.

Representatives from the Shawnee Mission, Blue Valley and Olathe
districts said their districts do not do random drug testing and have
no immediate plans to examine the issue.

Nancy Keith, Olathe School District's executive director of general
administration, said the Olathe district talked about the issue in
general terms several years ago but decided it was not the way the
district wanted to go.

"I think we think it's a little too intrusive," she said. "We try to
do our prevention stuff through curriculum and classroom guidance."

If De Soto decides to adopt a policy, the district wouldn't be
entering totally uncharted territory. Similar policies are already in
place in El Dorado, Kan., Maize, Kan. and Oak Grove, Mo.

Marc Haught, athletics and activities director for Maize High School,
said his district plans to start random drug testing for middle and
high school students this fall. Haught said the policy has been
relatively well received within the community, partly because the
district has been slowly working toward it for a number of years.

Two years ago, the district began drug testing students based on
suspicion and told community members at the time that the district
was likely moving toward random drug tests.

"We feel like that we want to try to identify and help kids while
they are still within our jurisdiction and our control," he said.

An important part of the Maize policy is making sure students who do
test positive for illegal substances get the help they need, he said.
The district also decided that students who do test positive won't be
suspended from school, although they will be suspended from
participating in school activities.

"Generally speaking, the policy is to help kids," he
said.

But the policies don't come without critics too.

The American Civil Liberties Union, a group that advocates for
personal privacy, is against the policies and believes they are
ineffective in preventing drug use.

"It's a very expensive way to go about things," said Kay Johnson, the
interim executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and Western Missouri.

She said districts could use the money for more effective means of
prevention like education.

Officials in the De Soto district probably won't make a decision on
random testing until next year. Board members have said they need
more information before they can decide whether it's a policy they'd
like to pursue.