ELKHART SCHOOLS REVIVE DRUG TESTING

ELKHART -- Student athletes at Elkhart's two high schools will be subject
to random drug testing once again this fall.

The Board of School Trustees for Elkhart Community Schools voted
unanimously Monday night to reinstate the program after a two-year hiatus.

Elkhart, like many other districts in the state, stopped testing after the
1999-2000 school year, when the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled it
unconstitutional. The state Supreme Court voted in March to allow the
tests, and since then, school corporations have been restarting them.

Some school districts, including Goshen and Middlebury, have extended
testing to include students in extracurricular activities or those who
drive to school.

Elkhart stopped short of that, citing costs and lingering legal questions.

"We would be getting into a questionable area," said Bob Woods, the
corporation's athletic director. "Some districts around us might be given
to do that, but we're not in a position right now where those are waters we
want to be testing."

So in the fall, student athletes will be randomly selected to give an oral
swab, not a urine analysis as was done before. The new test is more
efficient, less invasive and harder to cheat on, Woods said.

The samples will be tested for tobacco and several illegal drugs, including
marijuana and cocaine. Other drugs can be added to the test if school
officials see fit.

The last full year of the program, 1999-2000, 261 student athletes were
tested, school officials said. Fifteen, or less than 6 percent, tested
positive, Woods said. Six of those were for marijuana and nine for tobacco.

The program, which will cost the district about $8,000, is not intended to
be punitive, Woods said, and the school will not press criminal charges on
those who test positive.

Central and Memorial high schools will hold information sessions for
students and parents when school begins, Woods said.

Other area schools are still considering testing.

The Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. is studying the issue in the hopes of
restarting testing soon. The South Bend Community School Corp. has not
talked publicly about it.