SCHOOLS STRUGGLE WITH CALL ON DRUG TESTING

Rewards come in the form of stars at Columbia's Dutch Fork High School.
Sewn on to the uniforms of the school's student-athletes, each star
signifies the passing of a random, voluntary drug test by the student.

Athletics director Bill Kimrey calls it a reverse scarlet letter. For the
70 percent of the student-athletes at the school who choose to participate,
it's clearly a badge of honor.

"The kids and their parents take great pride in letting people know that
they are drug-free," Kimrey said.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 27 that programs such as Be A Star are
constitutional.

Schools in York, Lancaster and Chester counties, meanwhile, grapple with
the issues involved.

Some see the ruling as an opportunity for high schools to crack down on
drug problems.

But other administrators say they are caught in a moral dilemma. Testing
students could reduce drug abuse, but could also be viewed as an invasion
of student privacy and a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights against
search and seizure.

While the court said schools could test, not everyone thinks they should.

Testing also could be a financial burden. Basic testing, which includes
screening for marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine, can cost about $10 to $15.

"The legislature passes all these laws requiring schools to do more, but
who pays for it?" Rock Hill football coach Jim Ringer said. "Sometimes, the
mentality of our leaders amazes me."

None of the 12 area public high schools have made plans to randomly test
students for drug use, although at least one school -- Clover -- has sought
literature about Dutch Fork's plan.

In the Supreme Court ruling, judges said participation in extracurricular
activities was a privilege that needed to be earned, not a right.
Therefore, they said that students who take part in such things as
athletics, debate and chess club -- or any other club -- are subject to
drug testing.

The ruling affects an estimated 7 million high school students in 15,500
school districts nationally.

Several area principals said decisions on drug testing would have to be
made by their boards of education. Others said drugs were not a problem at
their school.

Lancaster High School Principal Joe Keenan said he didn't like infringing
on rights of students, but that testing might be a good thing.

"I certainly believe in the students' rights to privacy," Keenan said. "But
drugs are such a problem in our society. In this case, I think testing is
something that can benefit everyone."

Said new York Comprehensive High Principal Diane Howell: "Our primary
concern is for the safety of our students. If we thought this would make
the environment safer and more conducive to learning, we would do it. It's
good to know there's a tool out there that's available to us. But I don't
know that we need it."

Be A Star program

Of the 197 public high schools in South Carolina, Dutch Fork and Wren High
School in Anderson County are the only ones to drug-test students,
according to the S.C. High School League. Many others have expressed
interest."Since '98, a week hasn't gone by that I haven't had at least one
phone call from a school asking about it," said Kimrey, who has spoken on
local and national radio shows about the program. He began the program in
1998 at the request of parents.

In the Dutch Fork program, student-athletes make a pledge to stay drug- and
alcohol-free and to subject themselves to random urine testing.

Each student is assigned a number and numbers are drawn randomly, sometimes
as often as twice a week, by a school nurse to determine who gets tested.
The nurse and the school's guidance counselor are the only ones who know
the results of the test.

If a student fails a test, he and his parents are given counseling by
school staff. A second failed test leads to out-of-school counseling. If a
student fails a third time, he can't participate in athletics for a year.

Students pay an initial $10 fee for the program. The Richland County
Sheriff's Department and the local Coca-Cola bottling company pay for the rest.

Since the plan's implementation, Kimrey said no athlete has been removed
from a team because of drug use.

Objections

Graham Boyd, director of drug policy litigation for the American Civil
Liberties Union, said student-athlete drug testing targets the wrong people.

"Every available study demonstrates that the single best way to prevent
drug use among students is to engage them in extracurricular activities,"
Boyd said in a statement released after the Supreme Court decision.

"(The) court has now endorsed school policies setting up barriers to these
positive activities, which is dangerous both for the Constitution and
safety of America's children."

Ringer is as troubled by the law as the ACLU.

"It never ceases to amaze me, some of the ideas the people in robes come up
with," he said. "It seems like the further up the political ladder you go,
the further out of touch they become.

"If you want to test, test everybody," he said. "If you want to do
something, test all the students taking English. I'm totally against
targeting just one group of people. Nine times out of 10, the kids doing
extracurricular things are not the ones you have to worry about."

Ronnie Matthews, executive director of the S.C. High School League, is in
favor of the drug testing, but he has many reservations.

"Kids will do what is required to stay involved," Matthews said. "They want
to play, whether it's a sport or chess club or debate or whatever. My
problem isn't with the testing, it's with the singling out of certain
students."

Kimrey thinks his school has found a way to turn what some think is a
negative into a positive. Instead of invasion of privacy issues, he sees
people volunteering to prove they are not using drugs.

"For me, the issue is helping kids," he said. "The day before graduation I
had an athlete tell me that the program saved him. He was very emotional
about it. He said when he was a sophomore, he was making bad decisions. His
grades were slipping. He was doing bad things.

"He said the program was the reason he turned his life around. He didn't
have any other choice."