DRUG-TEST PROGRAM SHOWS LIMITED SUCCESS, STUDY SAYS

First Violations in Activities Test Group Increased Last Year

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school system took a controversial step in
1998 by requiring high-school students who want to play sports or join
clubs to submit to random drug testing.

After four years, the success of the program, which also allows students
who don't participate in activities to volunteer to be tested for drugs,
has been limited, according to an annual report released last night during
a school-board meeting.

Substance-abuse violations in high schools have dropped only slightly, from
167 in 1997-98 to 154 last year. Among high-school athletes and students in
other extracurricular activities, first-time violations increased last
year, and enrollment in the system's voluntary drug-testing program for
high-school and middle-school students decreased.

However, the program, which costs about $48,000 a year and is paid for by
the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, has helped more students who use drugs
get counseling, said Nancy Dixon, the program specialist for Safe and
Drug-Free Schools.

In the program's first year, only six of the 19 students who tested
positive for drugs accepted counseling. Last year 20 students of the 48
students who tested positive got help.

Donny Lambeth, the chairman of the school board, said he had expected
better results when the system became the first in the state to make
participation in extracurricular activities contingent upon the random drug
test.

"The data is not overwhelming that it's being successful, and that's a
little concerning," Lambeth said after the meeting. "It was really
disappointing to see that it wasn't a deterrent in extracurriculars."

Under the policy, the system can test up to 25 percent of the students in
the program. Last year, 1,015 students, or 15 percent of students enrolled,
were tested. As in the past, about 5 percent of the students tested
positive, mostly for marijuana.

Students who test positive for drug or alcohol use can get counseling at
Step One, a local drug-treatment center. Those who don't accept the
counseling are banned from extracurricular activities for a year.

The school board started the program in response to the rising number of
students in clubs and on sports teams caught using drugs.

During the 1997-98 school year, participants in extracurricular activities
committed about 47 percent of the first-time alcohol- and drug-policy
violations that were reported, Dixon said.

"We wanted to give kids a reason not to use," Dixon said. "We wanted to set
a norm."

The number of drug violations committed by students participating in
extracurricular activities dropped to 33 percent after the first full year
of the program. That figure dropped to 30percent in 2000-01. It rose last
year to 35 percent.

Only 1.3 percent of the high-school student body committed drug violations,
but the increase among students in extracurricular activities was
surprising, Dixon said.

The number of students participating in the drug-testing program decreased
from 7,951 in 2000 to 7,597 last year, she said.

"We got a wake-up call," Dixon said. "Some of the emphasis has begun to
wane, and schools have so many things going on. I think it's important to
keep the anti-substance-abuse message out there."

But Lambeth said he is worried that the policy is too soft and has failed
to make a real dent in drug use.

"It needs to be monitored a little more closely," he said. "There aren't a
lot of consequences. It's not a heavy-handed approach ... but we wanted to
identify and help students. Maybe it's beneficial from that standpoint.
Maybe there needs to be some consequences."