STUDENTS HAVE MIXED REACTION TO DRUG TESTING

School board expected to vote on issue tonight

If you think parents have strong opinions on random drug testing in the
Conway School District, you should hear what the students have to say.

"It totally invades students' privacy," Jenni Busbee, a junior at Conway
High School-West, said. "I think it's ridiculous that they think they have a
right to invade our privacy. I feel strongly about this. It's none of their
business." Although she is in choir, "if it comes down to it (a drug test),
I'll drop out." She said her parents have told her they don't agree with the
drug testing.

Erin Hoyt, a senior at the school, said it's "not their (school officials)
concern if you don't bring it on campus." Hoyt said students must keep a
certain grade-point average to participate in extracurricular activities,
but random drug-testing is going too far, she believes.

Melanie Bryant, who graduated from Conway High School in 2001, said if
students are using drugs, an extracurricular activity might be helping them.
If they test positive and are forced to drop out, she believes "then they'll
get depressed" and the situation will be worse.

Other students see no problem with random drug testing.

"If you don't do drugs, you shouldn't have anything to worry about," Dustin
Lunsford, a junior at Conway High School-West, said. He isn't in
extracurricular activities so far this year, but he said the threat of being
tested for drugs would not keep him out.

"I don't see anything wrong with it, either," Suylen Chavira, also a junior,
said. She is on the yearbook staff. "Drugs are illegal anyway."

Chavira said other students know she won't do drugs, so she doesn't face a
lot of peer pressure. However, if she ever wanted to try a drug, "I could
get it in a heartbeat," she said, snapping her fingers. "Anything -- it
could be gotten."

Justin Martin, a senior at Conway High School-West who is on the track team
and a member of FFA, thinks random drug testing is a good idea, but he
wishes all students could be tested.

"I think they should, because, of course, it's illegal, and I think if they
can do it (drug test) for jobs, they should do it in school." He doesn't
believe privacy is an issue. "They're not going to walk in there and watch
people."

He said marijuana is what he hears students talk about the most, but he also
hears about Ecstasy and other drugs, and he agreed drugs are easily
obtained.

In response to one teen-ager's comment that they just want to have "fun on
the weekends," Martin said he enjoys his weekends, "but I sure as heck don't
have to do that (drugs) to have fun."

The Conway School District's Board of Education is expected vote on the
issue at 6 p.m. today in the administration building.