'SUSPICION' PART OF SCHOOL DRUG TESTING

For Madison Central High School senior Georgia Anne Ray, playing an active
role in the selection of her school district's drug testing policy has been
a stressful but rewarding part of her final year of high school.

Ray and a committee of other students and principals will present their
recommendation for a new suspicion-based drug testing policy to the county
School Board Monday night with members expected to take the matter under
advisement.

The move is the first step in establishing a two-part drug testing policy
for the school district which will include both the suspicion-based policy
and a "random" drug-testing policy for students participating in
co-curricular activities such as athletics or any other school-sponsored
organization.

Currently, the Madison County School District has no drug-testing policy.

The special committee addressing the issue is comprised of student council
representatives and principals from every middle school and high school
throughout the district. The group has been meeting on the subject together
and with separate school groups over the last three weeks.

The suspicion-based policy being presented Monday was modeled closely after
the policy currently used by the Clinton Public School District which is
more punitive in nature.

Under such a policy a student suspected of being under the influence of
drugs or alcohol can be singled out by administrators for individual
testing and possible expulsion pending the results.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recently upheld a ruling that allows for random
drug tests in schools and expanded an earlier ruling that endorsed drug
testing for student athletes. School officials say they fully intend to
have a policy based on this ruling.

Ray is the co-president of the student council at Madison Central High
School and along with presidents and principals from eight other secondary
schools, she has spent the last three weeks researching and gaining input
from her peers, family and friends on the subject.

Admittedly, Ray, said this is one of the biggest issues she's had to tackle
since becoming a member of the student government as a freshman. She said
students, teachers and her parents are all very interested in the outcome
and coming to a decision on the subject has been hard.

"This is a huge issue," Ray said. "I don't know the actual number of
students it will have an effect on, but even if it's just one kid, it will
effect our whole school. It's the whole privacy thing we're mostly worried
about."

Ray said a lot of rumors have been circulating around the school about drug
testing, most unfounded.

"I had two people call me today wanting to know if we were going to start
mandatory drug testing (for all students) at the end of the week," Ray
said. "I've had a lot of teachers calling me and my parents are both very
interested and want to know everything."

She says so far she's received a mix of input from people with some
threatening they will leave the school if the district implements a random
drug-testing policy. Others believe in widespread testing and that students
should be held accountable.

Superintendent of Education Michael D. Kent said he understands how
important the issue is not only for students, but parents and the community
at large as well.

"All the kids have given us a lot of good input," Kent said. "When we
decided to meet this way we hoped to get a broad base of opinions because
you will need a broad base of support for something like this too."

The school board has been torn on the issue for some time now with two
schools of thought ruling the drug-policy debate. One, a more lenient
rehabilitative policy hopes to help students overcome a drug problem and
the other is a punitive policy which threatens expulsion or suspension
pending a positive test.

The policy being presented to the board Monday will be more of a
punitive-based policy, giving school administrators the right to call for a
student to take a drug test if there is reasonable suspicion.

At that point the parents of the student are informed and it is left up to
the student to take the drug test. If the test comes back positive or the
student refuses to take the test, they can be removed from school through
expulsion or suspension.

The policy is closely designed after the one used in Clinton, which Kent
said has worked well for the school district since its implementation four
years ago.

Clinton does not have a mandatory or random drug-testing policy allowed
under the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, but Kent said that will be the next
step for the board after adopting a suspicion-based policy.

Kent said with the rulings he feels more and more districts will implement
such a policy without fear of litigation.

For example, Tupelo Public School District has a random drug-testing policy
for all athletes who compete at the school.

Kent said to his knowledge Tupelo is the only public school to have such a
policy in the state.

When adopting such a policy Kent said it would include anyone taking part
in co-curricular activities, listing examples like; football, beta club,
band and even the yearbook staff.

Overall, Tupelo's random testing policy is strictly rehabilitative in
nature. It demands anonymity for students and requires them to seek
counseling, but allows them to continue school and any activities they
might be participating in at the time.

Kent said he believes whatever policy is adopted by the school district
won't mirror that of Tupelo's. He said it could be a more punitive policy
or a combination of punitive and rehabilitative.

In some ways, Ray said she agrees with the Tupelo policy when it comes to
testing athletes or students involved in extracurricular activities, but
still believes some punitive action could be necessary.

She doesn't like the idea of singling out students participating in sports
or other activities, however, and feels simply kicking them out of school
or off a team or club could do more harm than good.

"What good will it do to kick them off the activity they are doing?" Ray
asked. "I don't think that's the answer to the problem. Plus, I'm having a
hard time understanding why schools would only test students taking part in
extracurricular activities."

Ray said it's hard not to support the suspicion-based policy they will
present to the board Monday.

She said, "It's kind of hard to be lenient on people stupid enough to come
to school under the influence," but fears the debate over a random test
could be heated.

Overall, she feels school drug testing is a good thing, but simply wants it
to be done as fairly as possible. Privacy is a big issue and Ray said she
believes no matter what the result, there should be absolute privacy when
dealing with students.

Most of all, Ray is simply happy to be involved in the process. The ability
to weigh in with school administrators on the issues is something she feels
in the long run will help both sides understand and develop the most
effective policy possible.

"I think they really do want our input because this is going to be
affecting us directly," Ray said. "So far it has worked out great and
hopefully they will listen to what we have to say."