WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL TOUTS RANDOM DRUG TESTING OF STUDENTS AT PASCO SEMINAR

Random student drug testing can help Mid-Columbia school officials
prevent drug use among teens, a White House official said Friday.

"Everyone must join together to prevent teen drug use. Random student
drug testing is a component of prevention," said Bertha Madras, deputy
director for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

She spoke to about 70 Mid-Columbia educators who attended a conference
in Pasco aimed at giving school leaders information on how testing
programs work in districts across the country.

There also were presentations on the legality and logistics of random
testing and how districts can get grants from the U.S. Department of
Education for their own programs.

The federal agency has given out more than $36 million in grants for
testing programs since 2003, according to Madras' office.

The grants require testing to be confidential, part of existing
comprehensive drug prevention programs and provide for referrals to
treatment or counseling.

Grant money only can be used to test athletes, students in competitive
extracurricular activities or those who have consented and gotten
permission from their parents.

Madras has given about two dozen seminars on random testing throughout
the country in the last four years.

Nearly half of all districts that send representatives eventually
apply for and receive education department grants for testing
programs, she said.

Russell Hill, principal of River View High School in Finley, wasn't
sure whether a program would fly at his school.

But "it's been very interesting," he said of the seminar. "We wanted
to come and get more information about it, and talk about it within
our district."

Sunnyside school officials plan to do the same thing. The district
sent two high school associate principals and a coach, said John
Hughes, the district's director of safe and effective schools.

Sunnyside had a voluntary drug testing program for several years, but
it recently was discontinued.

The American Civil Liberties Union doesn't support random student drug
testing.

"Suspicionless" testing treats all students as suspects and isn't an
effective deterrent, the state chapter said in a statement sent to the
Herald this week. The group is involved in two lawsuits in Washington
challenging the practice.

One official said Friday that random drug testing appears to be
working in Lake Stevens. The district in Snohomish County has had a
program for more than a year.

About 1,000 students are expected to have been tested through the
program by the end of this school year, said Pam Sturgeon, the
district's executive director of high school teaching and learning.

She was a presenter at the seminar.

The district doesn't yet have hard data to analyze, but anecdotal
evidence suggests it's keeping some kids from using drugs, Sturgeon
said.

The district also has anti-drug education programs and other supports
in place, she said.

The daylong seminar in Pasco was put on by Educational Service
District 123.