COULD SENECA VALLEY'S SIZE BE A FACTOR IN ITS DRUG PROBLEM?

Give Seneca Valley School District officials credit for confronting the
drug problem at their school. The reason for imposing one of the toughest
student drug-testing programs around boils down to one word - heroin.

To combat drugs in its schools, the district now randomly tests students
who want to drive to school and participate in sports. On Monday, it
decided not to expand the testing because of the cost involved.

Parents can volunteer their children for the testing pool, too.

Seneca Valley isn't alone in regard to heroin use among its students.
Gateway Rehabilitation Center reports that 30 percent to 40 percent of its
youth inpatients are participating in a heroin-related program.

But Seneca Valley's difficulties might be compounded by its sheer size.

With an enrollment of almost 7,500 students, it's one of the largest school
districts in the region and the state. Its high school grades - ninth
through 12th - have around 2,200 students. To put that into perspective,
that's larger than the districtwide enrollments of Beaver Area, Big Beaver
Falls Area, Center Area, Freedom Area, New Brighton Area, Quaker Valley and
Riverside.

With enrollments averaging 554 students per grade level, it's easy for
students to get lost in the crowd, even though ninth- and 10th-graders go
to one school and 11th and 12th graders go to another. (Although more
research needs to be done, high schools with enrollments of 600 to 900
students appear to have the best chance of keeping in touch with students.)

No school is immune from drugs and alcohol, not even those with lower
enrollments. But when size of the student body gets so big that students
become numbers and not names, the situation becomes ripe for abuse, as
Columbine showed us, in many forms.