BOARD DELAYS PLAN FOR DRUG TESTING

Carthage Panel Opts To Work On Program For 2003-04 School Year

CARTHAGE, Mo. - Plans for student drug testing this school year were halted
Monday by the Carthage R-9 School Board.

Members instead agreed to follow a time schedule that would put the program
in place at the start of the 2003-04 school year.

"We're not ready," said Debbie Baugh, when board president Neel Baucom
asked for a motion on whether the program should start in the school year
that begins Aug. 18.

Baugh was a member of a citizenship policy that recommended drug testing,
and she has been the program's most vocal proponent on the board.

"I'd love to see it happen, but we'd be rushing it," she said. "I think we
need to proceed with the policy for the 2003-2004 school year."

The decision came after the board president called for comments from all
members.

He said he still is hearing from residents who say they cannot understand
why all students cannot be tested, and who ask why the program would be
restricted to interscholastic athletes and students involved in other
extracurricular activities.

"I think we need to answer that," Baucom said. "I feel we don't have all
the kinks worked out, and it concerns me that we might approve something
we're not all ready to approve."

He said he also had been questioned about the program's expenses, which are
predicted to range from $7,000 to $10,000.

Mariam Putnam said she had received few comments on the program, so she
called people including a judge, some attorneys, teachers and former school
board members.

"They're all concerned about students' health and safety, but most of them
disagreed with the 5-4 court decision," she said, referring to a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling last month. "They said they felt like testing would
violate students' privacy. Some others said we don't do anything else
randomly, and we should test everyone or no one."

Most of the people she called were parents, she said, and several expressed
concerns that the policy would cause students to drop out of
extracurricular activities. She said others argued that student peers and
teachers do a good job of monitoring and reporting abuse problems so that
students can get counseling.

"I hear just the opposite," said Baugh. "The only question I hear is,
'What's the holdup?' The kids on the citizenship committee were in favor."

Mike Wells said he had received no calls.

Tony Diggs said he had received "only positive comments, and questions
about when and how the policy would be implemented."

Steve Montague said people he has talked with "haven't had a problem with it."

He said the board should set a time line for completing the policy by the
end of the year, and he and others called for another public forum to get
residents' input.

Diggs said board members will be able to attend a Missouri School Board
Association training session on drug policy this fall. Superintendent Gary
Reed said Ray Harding, athletic director, will attend a workshop before
school starts.

The board started looking at a policy aimed at extracurricular athletes.
Then, the U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that testing programs could
be expanded to include students in other extracurricular activities. Reed
said the 5-4 ruling in some ways had "muddied the water" because it allows
for testing in some activities for which students also receive grades, such
as band.

The district needs to sort out, he said, how a testing program can be
implemented without depriving students of grades to which they have "a
property right."

Baugh said after the meeting that she would prefer implementing the policy
this year.

"But things need to be worked through to make sure it's done fairly," she said.