SCHOOLS DRUG TEST ACTIVE KIDS

Athletes, Musicians Undergo Urinalysis In Southern Districts

In small school districts scattered across southern Colorado, students know
the drug-testing drill:

Participate in sports or band or any extracurricular activity and you may
have to submit to urine analysis.

Similar policies have been in place in Aguilar, Ignacio, Sanford and
Trinidad for at least three years.

"I think it deters students from being on drugs," said Louise Terry, a
Trinidad school board member who voted yes on that district's policy in
1996. "They know we do random drug testing."

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer bolsters the rights of school
districts to require students involved in extracurricular activities to
submit to drug tests.

The ruling, in what's known as the Earls case for the Oklahoma family who
filed a lawsuit in 2000, clarifies that such testing need not be limited to
student athletes.

But no large Colorado school district currently tests any students for
drugs. Officials in Denver, Jefferson County, Cherry Creek, Douglas County
and Boulder Valley say they don't expect the recent ruling will change that.

"We chose instead to put our resources into prevention, into the kind of
education that helps kids make good choices for their lives around drugs,"
said Jefferson County schools spokeswoman Tanya Spasev.

In Cherry Creek schools, "When we suspect a student is using drugs, we ask
the parents to take the student to get them tested," said spokeswoman
Tustin Amole. "We don't do that ourselves."

District officials also cited the expense of testing and concerns about
student privacy.

"It's just not something we've seen the need for," Amole said. "We think
what we're doing is working well."

The Supreme Court opened the door for random drug testing of student
athletes in 1995. The court upheld such testing in an Oregon district,
citing evidence of a serious drug problem and finding that athletes were
leaders of that district's drug culture.

A year later, the Trinidad school board approved a policy testing not only
athletes but all students in extracurricular activities.
Then-Superintendent David Van Sant said the policy stemmed from concerns
over marijuana use by students. It was in place a week before a student in
the school's marching band filed suit.

In 1998, the Colorado Supreme Court sided with the student, saying the
testing policy was unfair because marching band participation was not
entirely voluntary. Band members were required to take classes and all
students in those classes were required to be in the band.

Van Sant, Trinidad's superintendent from 1996 until this past school year,
said the 1,500-student district continued to test its student athletes for
drugs.

In the past two years, he said, no students tested positive for drug use.

He credits the testing policy.

"It helped empower the kids as another reason to avoid peer pressure," Van
Sant said. "It gave them one more thing in their arsenal to just say no."

The recent Earls ruling makes it clear that not only athletes can be
tested, said Boulder attorney Alex Halpern, who represented Trinidad in its
lawsuit and who serves as legal counsel for the Colorado High School
Activities Association.

School districts "do need to prove they have a reason for doing this, a
drug use problem," Halpern said. "Under the Earls decision, it doesn't look
like a heavy burden to establish that."

Still, Halpern said he doesn't expect Colorado districts will rush to test
students.

"I think most people kind of feel like it's wrong," he said. "In the
Trinidad situation, they kind of went out on a limb because of the drug
problem they had."

Officials in the school districts where students are tested say the Earls
ruling affirms their policies.

"It sure was a nice ruling for us," said Ignacio assistant superintendent
Bruce Yoast. "We can feel more comfortable doing it."

School board members in Ignacio approved drug testing for students in all
extracurricular activities in grades 7-12 in 1998.

They wanted "the best possible people representing Ignacio in student
activities," Yoast said.

As in Trinidad, a first positive test for drugs means the student must
undergo drug counseling.

A random sample of students in the 1,000-student district are tested twice
a year.

Yoast said he believes the policy reduces drug use - at least for the
duration of the sport of activity.

"But if it stops them from doing it two or three times, it's at least a
help," he said.

In Aguilar, a 200-student district, a random sample of high school students
who participate in extracurricular activities are tested once a year.

In 350-student Sanford, two students in extracurricular activities are
picked at random for weekly testing.

Asked about costs, Sanford High School Principal Brady Stagner said it's
worth it: "How much is too much to spend on the welfare of your student body?"

Terry, the school board member in Trinidad, said the board has yet to
discuss expanding its testing policy beyond athletes.

She would like to expand it, though.

"If you're participating in an extracurricular activity, you need to be
drug-free," she said. "It's for your safety and the health and welfare of
other people as well."