DISTRICT PLANS DRUG TESTS FOR SOME STUDENTS

EAST HANOVER TWP. - The Hanover Park Regional High School District
plans to implement a random drug testing policy in the fall, with the
aim of reducing students use of illegal drugs.

"Random testing provides students a socially acceptable way to
decline participating in illegal substance abuse," Acting
Superintendent Karl A. Mundi told Board of Education members before
they approved the policy for a first reading at their meeting
Wednesday, April "11.

The regional district serves students in grades 9-12 from Florham
Park and East Hanover at Hanover Park High School in East Hanover,
and from Hanover Township at Whippany Park High School in Hanover Township.

At the start of the 2007-08 school year, if adopted as expected, the
policy would require students who participate in co-curricular
activities, athletics, and students who park on campus to participate
in random drug testing.

Randomly selected eligible students would be asked to provide urine
samples in private for testing under the proposed policy. The results
would not be turned over to law enforcement or become part of the
record sent to colleges.

To Deter Drug Use

"The chance that a student might be selected for testing is enough to
make him or her strongly consider the value of participating in the
co-curricular activity or sport over using illegal substances," said Mundi.

The board will vote on a final adoption of the policy at its
reorganization meeting at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 25, at the board
offices at 75 Mount Pleasant Ave. in East Hanover.

A Community Forum on Random Drug Testing will be held at 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May 2, at Whippany Park High School, 165 Whippany Road in
Hanover Township. Mundi said information about the testing policy
would be sent to each household in the district within the next week.

The policy would affect about 900 of the district's 1,535 students,
who fall within the guidelines, although other students also could
request inclusion. The tests would detect 10 types of drugs,
including cocaine, oxycodone, PCP, and amphetamines, according to the
acting superintendent.

Any student who has previously violated the district's substance
abuse policy would also be included in the testing pool. Under
federal and state law the test results are confidential, Mundi said.

If a test were confirmed positive by a medical review officer after
consultation with the parents, the student then would be deemed
ineligible to participate in school activities or parking for a
minimum of one week and until such time that a negative drug test is submitted.

The student whose test is confirmed positive would also be required
to participate in at least six sessions with the district's substance
abuse coordinator and enter an early intervention program.

In the event a student is randomly selected and tests positive a
second time, he or she would be ineligible from activities or parking
for 30 days, would be required to submit a negative drug screening,
complete a substance abuse evaluation, and meet with the district
substance abuse coordinator every 10 days to determine his or her progress.

The district's goal is to test at least 10 percent of the students in
the testing pool. The cost of the lab fees for the tests would vary
between $10 and $148.50 each, depending on the specific drug tests,
although the district would seek grants to cover the costs.

Policy Follows Drug Busts

The region served by the high school district has seen two
significant drug busts within the past year. "Operation Painkiller"
resulted in charges involving the narcotic oxycodone being lodged
against more than 50 teen-agers and young adults last July, while 16
people, including a volunteer assistant football coach and a
17-year-old player at Hanover Park, were charged in an alleged
steroid manufacturing and distribution ring in East Hanover in March.

Two recent Whippany Park graduates have died of drug overdoses in the
past year.

The Hanover Park district would be the second in Morris County to
adopt a random drug testing policy. The Pequannock Township School
District began such testing in the fall of 2005, and Mundi said that
district gets only one or two positive test results in a year.

Along with Hanover Park school district officials, participants in
the Community Forum on Random Drug Testing on May 2 will include two
administrators from Pequannock: Pequannock Valley Middle School
Principal William Trusheim, who Mundi said brought in a similar
program three years ago, and that district's Random Drug Testing
Coordinator, John Graf.

Mundi, who came to Hanover Park from the Hackettstown public schools
in 2005, said such a program was instituted in his former district
four years ago.

"We don't plan to 'catch' students very frequently," the acting
superintendent explained. "It's when students go to a party or are
out with friends and there is a chance to use drugs, this policy will
provide an opportunity to decline drugs citing the chance they could be tested.

"This is the district's attempt to help change the culture in the
schools," Mundi added.

Under the policy a private company would be brought onto the two
school campuses to carry out the tests. A school restroom in the
athletics trainer's area adjacent to the gymnasium would provide
privacy for the unaccompanied student to provide a sample, Mundi said.

"We plan to secure the bathroom by putting a blue solution in the
toilet so the students cannot dilute the sample," he added. "We will
also disable the sink inside the restroom, with students using a sink
outside the restroom, so no other sources of water will be available."

At the community forum at Whippany Park, a brief presentation on the
need for testing and the proposed policy will be followed by an
opportunity for experts in the field to answer any questions
regarding student testing, Mundi said.