DRUG POLICY CAN DO ONLY SO MUCH

Leaders of the Shaler Area School District are wondering what to do about
human nature -- specifically, the unpredictable, curious and secretive
aspects of human nature usually contained in the teen-age size of the species.

They're also wondering how much to spend to control it. Their efforts are a
microcosm of a struggle facing school districts nationwide. But what if
they're missing a bigger problem? At its last meeting, the Shaler school
board discussed how broadly to apply a proposed drug-testing policy for the
district. Do we test only our athletes? Do we test all kids involved in
after-school activities? Do we randomly test the entire student population?
Should the tests be voluntary or not?

After a decade or so of fitful subsidence, drug use is rising pretty much
everywhere. School board members -- some of whom are themselves subject to
random workplace drug tests -- know how much drug abuse costs both the
individual and society.

A newly proposed policy, sent back to committee for further review, calls
for weekly random screenings for the district's 400 athletes in grades
seven through 12. The tests would cover only a portion of that population
in any given week and would cost $20,000 per year.

Right now, the district relies on observation and referrals to figure out
who needs help and discipline. When kids use drugs, "their grades, their
attendance, their personalities are somehow going to be altered," says
Shaler Superintendent Donald Lee. "Sometimes it's parents who call us. They
say, 'My child has a new group of friends. They're not interested in the
things they used to be. Can you help us out?'"

Teachers and staff are trained to look for such symptoms, and "as they see
a change in the student's behavior or performance, they report it to the
Student Assistance Program team, they have meetings to talk about it and
look into indivdual situations."

But the costly tests proposed as another tool for helpful intervention
won't be able to detect this and every district's biggest drug problem:
alcohol. The tests detect "steroids or marijuana or opiates, but they can't
get at alcohol," Lee said. "Alcohol is a bigger problem. Alcohol
consumption by people under 21 is a big concern everywhere."

Underage drinking is the most popular form of drug abuse among teen-age
athletes, Lee said. "Sometimes we learn through arrests made in the
community at a weekend party. That's how we resolve alcohol problems with
athletes."

Shaler's current policy uses a "sliding scale" to determine punishment -- a
week's suspension and some counseling for a first-time offense, four to six
weeks' suspension and more substantial counseling or intervention if a
second infraction occurs within a year of the first. "I'm assuming the new
policy will have a similar approach," Lee said. But in the three years that
Shaler's current policy has been in place, only "two or three kids have
gone to the second level" of discipline, Lee said. "We've never had to ban
anyone from a sport."

That could mean that Shaler athletes aren't abusing alcohol and drugs much
at all, or it could mean that the authorities aren't finding out about it.

It seems that there are two different student groups school board members
need to consider here: kids involved in sports and other extracurricular
activities, and everybody else. It makes sense that the school would want
those who represent the district on various teams to be drug-free, and the
random testing policy recently proposed makes sense.

But if alcohol abuse is the bigger problem and the tests don't detect it,
then another remedy has to be considered. Either school officials must test
for alcohol use -- an invasive blood test -- or they must ask parents to
cooperate with a district-wide policy against allowing kids to attend
unchaperoned parties.

(Any sensible parent isn't going to allow a teen-ager to attend such a
party and isn't going to take the kid's word for it, either, but apparently
there's a shortage of sensible parents.) At almost no cost, the district
could have athletes, band members, debaters, other young district
representatives and their parents take a no partying pledge.

And for kids who don't participate in after-school activities? They tend to
find after-school activities of their own. Endless research shows that the
hours from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. are the hours teens get into all kinds of
trouble. If Shaler's money were mine to spend, I'd put it toward finding a
way to make sure that all teens are busy and under the influence of caring
adults during those hours of greatest need.

Other than changing the structure of the American school day and the
realities of human nature, though, Shaler's current drug policy does just
about everything it can do. The rest is up to the parents.