POT PATROL INVADES WAKE SCHOOLS

Wake County Middle and High Schools Will Use a New Litmus Paper Test for
Illegal Drug Use.

A Washington, D.C., company has provided litmus-paper, drug-screen tests,
free of charge, to Wake County middle and high schools as part of a
federally funded pilot program. The test will be administered to students
who are suspected of using marijuana due to suspicious circumstances such
as a strong odor, according to Corey Duber, Wake senior director for
security. This plan draws criticism from groups, such as the American Civil
Liberties Union of North Carolina, because of the questionable accuracy of
the testing devices and the fact that the original purpose of the program
was to test the environment, not students. School officials should be
concerned about illegal drug use on campus, but when teachers begin taking
students out of the classroom setting to rub paper on their belongings, the
learning process is interrupted.

The original concept of this program was to provide a means for schools to
test their environment for illegal drug use. The tool to do so is a strip
of litmus paper that can be rubbed on surfaces like hands or book bags. A
spray is applied to the residue, which causes the paper to change color
within seconds if traces of drug residue are detected.

This test can be an important resource for schools that want to test
surfaces of the school environment. If rest rooms, locker rooms or other
areas of campus test positive for illegal drug residue, then officials will
know that they have problems that need to be addressed. These tests on
students will only test for marijuana, while tests on surfaces will also
screen for cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines. >From that discovery,
administrators can move ahead to solve the problem on a more direct level
focused on drug activity on school grounds.

The extension of the program to testing individual students is not
appropriate, however, because there can be too many mistakes made with this
inexact test. Although rules are not in place about how to use the kits,
Duber has stated that school personnel, not police, will administer the
test, starting as soon as October. This means those students who test
positive for drug residue cannot be criminally prosecuted, but they can be
suspended, according to Duber. The problem with testing for mere drug
residue is that the residue can appear if a student has had any type of
contact with something touching drugs. For example, if students are crowded
in a narrow hallway, drug residue from one student could brush against
another student, possibly contaminating their clothes or book bag and
making that student test positive. In addition, a student may come into
contact with residue from sources outside of the school, even in the home
environment, when that child was in fact never using an illegal substance
personally.

Since students and their families know that these tests have possible
flaws, they will contest every positive result. In addition, how would
school personnel decide who to test? The ACLU is concerned that, while
police officials would need probable cause, teachers and other staff
members would not need as high of standards to choose who to test.

One role of a school is to ensure a safe learning environment for students,
including making the grounds free from illegal activities. This would make
testing actual school property appropriate as a means to make the school
aware of problems on campus. A litmus paper test for illegal substances is
a novel idea but one which must be used responsibly.