DISTRICTS TAKE ACTION TO HALT DRUG USE BY TEENS

Maybe the new high school tradition should be snorting in the boys' room.

In Bethel Park, police, school leaders and teens all believe that up to 10
percent of the high school abuses heroin. A longtime drug treatment
counselor serving North Hills teens thinks the same epidemic is sweeping
her community, too.

"Heroin is spreading like wildfire, and people should be outraged," said
Joyce Erdner, director of Doorway, a drug treatment center in Avalon
serving North Hills teens. "Schools should be made to fight it. But they're
not doing that, and parents have been lulled to sleep. Communities are not
looking at the drug issue.

"But now we're treating kids as young as 11. It's a problem of denial. What
school district wants to say they have a problem? What politician wants to
get up and say his borough has a major drug problem? They don't. They want
people to buy houses there, and they're not going to come if they talk
openly about drugs."

Even if teens stay clean at Doorway, Erdner worries about sending them back
to homeroom.

"For these kids, sending them back to school is like sending an alcoholic
to a bar. They're surrounded all day by junkies. We wouldn't do that to an
alcoholic, but we do it to teenagers every day. That's how bad it is."

With 127 high schools in western Pennsylvania, school systems have adopted
a patchwork of policies addressing narcotics abuse.

Since July, Canon-McMillan, Seneca Valley, Belle Vernon and Derry Area
school districts have launched strict drug testing programs covering many
upperclassmen, but less than half of the total student body. Shaler Area
and West Allegheny are debating the issue. Nationwide, 5 percent of all
school districts test their teenage students, according to the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency.

Pine-Richland, Bethel Park, Mt. Lebanon and Greensburg-Salem likewise have
ushered in routine police locker searches, including drug- sniffing dogs.

Others are planning regional cooperation. Twelve districts in the North
Hills - including North Allegheny, Deer Lakes, Mars Area and Quaker Valley
- - formed the Northern Area Alliance for Addictive Drugs in October, hoping
to pool ideas on stopping the spread of dope.

The drug epidemic got so bad in Mt. Lebanon that the school district,
police department and PTA president sent letters to residents in December
warning them to watch out for teen drug and alcohol abuse. Mt. Lebanon
Superintendent Glenn Smartschan said parents should look for what he calls
"high-risk moments."

"If your child is going to a party, you should call ahead and make sure the
youngster told the truth about what was going on," said Smartschan.
"Parents need to be diligent. And residents need to be observant."

Beginning Feb. 12, Butler Area will begin selling parents $15 narcotic
testing kits. Former Steelers great Jack Ham promotes the program, but
Butler Area doesn't need an ad campaign. Heroin is doing it for them.

Last January, William Hronek, 16, of Center Township, died from a heroin
overdose. Another honor roll student, Kristin Lantz, 19, died in March.
Heroin killed seven other adults and teens in the school system's
communities in 2002.

"Over the past year, heroin has become a major problem in our community and
in all communities, really," said Butler Superintendent Ed Fink. "The board
began to think, 'Is there anything parents can do if they suspect their
sons and daughters are involved in substance abuse?'"

Facing the same concerns, Seneca Valley began an aggressive narcotics
screening program this school year that tests all athletes and students who
drive to school.

Unfortunately, say Butler County addicts, it probably doesn't thwart heroin
use. The drug can quickly leave the body, usually within 48 hours, they
say, making urinalysis testing irrelevant.

But Seneca Valley officials, wracked by a series of drug arrests and
realizing dozens of teens there are enrolled in treatment programs, felt
they had to do something. Butler County has more than doubled the number of
patients in its drug treatment centers, from 224 in 1999 to 462 last year,
according to the state Department of Health.

In April, Butler County detectives charged two Seneca Valley students -
Robert Ward and Justin Webster, both 18, of Cranberry - with heroin
possession. Ward later was arrested after a botched purse snatching that
left an elderly woman in a coma with a cracked skull.

Another classmate, Jeffrey Rossiter, 18, was arrested for carrying drug
paraphernalia. According to school officials, none of the three had
undergone Seneca Valley's drug testing plan before nabbed by officers.

Now, Seneca Valley is debating whether to expand the tests to include all
students in extracurricular activities, but for now put the issue on hold.

So far, school officials say six Seneca Valley teens have tested positive
for narcotics. A positive test can mean loss of privileges, including
driving to school, but it also can lead to treatment for the students.

Trace amounts of drugs below the school's action level also are detected in
the $40,000 annual program, officials say, and those results are sent to
parents.

"We think we're having a deterrent effect, that fewer kids are using drugs
here," said Seneca Valley spokeswoman Linda Andreassi. "That was one of our
goals, that it should make kids stop and think before they do drugs.

"Ask any parent here, and I think they'd tell you that if we save one life,
we've succeeded."