SENECA VALLEY LIKELY TO EXPAND DRUG TESTING

While the drug testing that begins next week applies only to Seneca Valley
students who want to participate in athletics or get a district parking
pass, students who participate in nonathletic extracurricular activities
should expect the same testing in the future.

As much as the law permits, the testing likely will be expanded, Matt
McKinley, principal of Seneca Valley Senior High School, told about 125
parents and students at an informational meeting Tuesday about the new program.

McKinley said the district is basing its drug-testing policy on legality.
The courts upheld school districts' rights to test student athletes and
drivers before the district started its program. The U.S. Supreme Court
more recently extended the districts' rights to require drug testing of any
students who participate in extracurricular activities.

"There's no doubt we will add extracurricular activities in the future,
probably next year," McKinley said. "There is a problem in this school
district we want to attack. That's why we have taken this route."

Beginning next week, student athletes and drivers will come to the school
to provide a urine sample to workers from Sport Safe Testing Service Inc.
of Powell, Ohio, which received a contract from the school district. A
schedule of who should be tested, and when, was sent to homes of district
residents last week.

To collect the samples, workers will prepare restrooms by taking steps to
ensure that students do not try to cheat the system, said Matthew Franz,
director of operations for Sport Safe. For example, they will tape off soap
dispensers and faucets so specimens cannot be diluted. Workers will be
posted in the restrooms to collect the samples from students, but students
will go into the stalls alone to urinate into plastic cups, he said.

The samples will be split into two containers at that time, each labeled
with the student's identification number. That way, if families are unhappy
with the results of the test, they can request the second sample for
outside testing.

The samples will be sent to a laboratory for analysis, with only the
student identification number on the sample to protect the student's
identity, Franz said. The company is working with Quest Diagnostics
drug-testing service on Route 19 in Cranberry to analyze the samples. The
lab reports will be sent to Sport Safe, where a doctor will analyze the
findings. If a test is positive for any of 10 drugs covered in the screen,
including alcohol and opiates, the doctor will call the student's parents
to discuss possible reasons for those results. If prescription drugs are
the cause, the parents will need to send a copy of the prescription to the
doctor as proof.

Franz said the lab analysis is so thorough that the doctor probably will
know if a prescription drug is involved. The analysis provides the
molecular structure of the drugs found and looks for quantities to be
present that would be impossible to ingest unintentionally, such as the
presence of marijuana through secondhand smoke.

"There are no false positives," he said.

The test also reveals the presence of substances students might have taken
to mask the presence of drugs or alcohol in their urine. Products sold in
nutrition stores or on the Internet promise to help people pass drug tests.
Franz said Seneca Valley's program will test for 17 such products. If one
is found, the student will be considered to have tested positive for drugs.

After the initial round, students still are subject to further testing. As
long as they participate in their sport or continue to drive to school,
they could be subject to random testing, which could be for the 10 drugs
tested previously or for other drugs, such as steroids, LSD and Ecstasy.
That testing will be done weekly to a small group of students, McKinley
said. And it could occur on weekends, when a student might be asked to come
to the school to provide a urine sample.

"We have to test on Saturdays and Sundays because that's when the parties
are," McKinley said. Students will not have to pay for the random testing.

They will have to pay $26 for the first test.

Students who test positive will lose 14 days of their activity or parking
privileges and must attend drug counseling at an approved facility.

"We want to get the student in the hands of the experts," McKinley said.

They also must submit five weekly urine specimens at their own expense.

The offense remains on a student's record for six years. So if a first
offense occurs in seventh grade and a second in 11th grade, that second
offense still will bring a higher level of punishment, McKinley said.

For the second offense, a student is not allowed to participate in the
athletic activity or to drive to school for a full year. The third offense
brings a permanent ban from participating in the sport or from driving.

The first offense can be expunged from a student's record if the student
agrees to be tested for 12 consecutive months at his own expense and to
meet other requirements that include counseling, McKinley said.

Feelings were mixed among parents at the Tuesday meeting. The audience
applauded loudly when one woman thanked the school board for its attempt to
curb Seneca Valley's drug problem, and some parents asked about having
children tested who were not participating in athletics or driving. Others
expressed concern about the invasion of their children's privacy and the
effect on younger students for being pulled out of a class for a random
drug test.