SCHOOL SCRAPS DRUG TESTING

But Mathews Will Make Kits Available

Mathews County school officials have abandoned a novel plan that would have
granted free parking and other incentives to high school students
volunteering for random drug tests.

After a year of discussion, the county school board directed Superintendent
Harry M. Ward to scrap the random testing plan and, instead, simply make
drug testing kits and counseling available to students whose parents
request them.

"It really is a parental responsibility," Ward said yesterday. "We will do
all we can to facilitate [drug testing for those who want it], but it is
not our job to actually test them."

Following on the board's decision at its July 16 meeting, Ward said he
would meet Monday with top school administrators to work out details of a
system to make drug testing kits available to parents. A vote on that plan
is expected Aug. 20.

Back in January, school board members in this rural Middle Peninsula county
beside the Chesapeake Bay were poised to adopt a drug testing program
unlike any other used in Virginia's school systems.

Some school divisions in the state and elsewhere require that participants
in high school sports, and sometimes other extracurricular activities,
submit to random drug testing.

The Mathews plan, designed by a committee of administrators, parents and
students, would have provided random drug tests for all high school
students on a voluntary basis.

To encourage volunteers, the school planned to offer them incentives
including free parking, free admission to school events, and the
opportunity to miss four days of school, rather than three, and still be
eligible to skip taking final exams.

The committee began its work after a handful of high school football
players were caught smoking marijuana.

The school board perceived no local opposition, but postponed a January
vote to await answers on a few questions about the program's potential cost.

At that point, however, some legal and ethical questions were raised by
officials and advocates interviewed in a Times-Dispatch story about the
proposed program and in an editorial column in the Daily Press of Newport News.

Some of those weighing in on the program questioned whether rewarding
students for submitting to drug tests amounted to discrimination against
students who did not volunteer.

Some suggested the program would make drug testing seem normal and cast
suspicion on those declining to be tested.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, notified of the plan when
contacted by The Times-Dispatch, persuaded the school officials to delay
voting until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a related case.

The Supreme Court recently voted 5-4 to uphold an Oklahoma school
district's policy of random drug testing of students involved in any
extracurricular activity.

Ward said the school board discussed that decision at its meeting last
week, and decided in the course of debate to change its original plan.
Besides the legal and ethical questions, Ward said, research showed that
drug testing can be very costly. He said one Virginia school district pays
$30,000 a year for its program.

"We just didn't lightly look at this," Ward said. "We went full circle. We
spent over a year on this."