TO PARK OR TO PLAY, STUDENTS WILL PAY WITH DRUG TESTING

Oak Grove Board Approves Random Procedure

Nothing specific prompted the district's new requirement, but
administrators had a sense that drugs were becoming more accepted by youths.

Starting this fall, Oak Grove High School students will be unable to
park on campus or participate in many activities unless they consent
to random drug tests.

Sports, band, cheerleading, drama and academic competitions such as
Science Olympiad are all covered by the policy. Oak Grove -- east of
Kansas City -- is believed to be the first district in the
metropolitan area to adopt random drug testing of students.

Federal figures indicate that few of the nation's schools are using
random drug testing. But when such policies have been put into place,
they sometimes attract criticism.

In large part, that's because drug testing pits students'
constitutional rights to privacy against the public's interests in
the drug fight. The issue has generated two U.S. Supreme Court cases.

Oak Grove's school board unanimously approved the policy last month,
and the plan is to start by testing 15 students a month through urinalysis.

The tests will check for marijuana, cocaine and other drugs.

The district estimates the policy will cover nearly all of its 700
high school students, and the testing is expected to eventually
include seventh- and eighth-graders.

Nothing specific prompted the policy, said Superintendent James Haley.

Coaches in the district have been talking about such testing for
several years, and administrators had a general sense that drug use
was becoming more accepted among students in the community.

"We feel like kids anymore see marijuana and some of these things as
not serious drugs," Haley said. "They are like, 'It's just pot.' "

As part of the policy, the district will hold drug-awareness meetings
at the beginning of each year and distribute drug-testing consent
forms to parents and their children.

Steroid testing is not part of the policy, Haley said, because it is
a separate, costly screening. The district already tests for alcohol
if a student is suspected of being intoxicated at school, according
to Bob Glasgow, district activities director.

Oak Grove is contracting with a Springfield company to do the tests,
which are expected to cost the district no more than $5,000 annually
for high school students.

Glasgow and Haley stressed that the policy is not meant to be
punitive. They hope that it helps students resist peer pressure.

Anti-drug students, Glasgow said, "can lean on each other, and they
can lean on this program."

Oak Grove student James Turney expressed support for the new district policy.

"We don't need drugs going through the school system," said James,
14, who will be a sophomore next year.

Plus, he added, "if it does work, maybe it will help other schools
realize maybe they should do it, too."

Officials in some Missouri and Kansas school districts that are
drug-testing students said their initiatives had been well-received
by students and parents and that, so far, was the case in Oak Grove.

But as the court battles suggest, that is not always the case for a
hot-button issue that is gaining in practice.

"This is a national trend," said Susan Goldammer, an attorney with
the Missouri School Boards' Association. "Some think its great; some
think it's not so great."

The two Supreme Court decisions -- in 1995 and in 2002 -- have upheld
districts' rights to implement policies similar to the one adopted by
Oak Grove. The court has found that students have limited Fourth
Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure because a
"special need" exists in schools to maintain a safe learning environment.

Furthermore, the court has found that students participating in
sports or other activities routinely adhere to participation
requirements that do not apply to the entire student body. A federal
appeals court has also upheld the right to extend the requirement of
random drug testing to parking privileges through a case involving an
Indiana school district.

Yet the issue of random drug testing for students is far from settled
in the court of public opinion. Privacy advocates, such as the
American Civil Liberties Union, oppose it.

Random drug testing is a "knee-jerk reaction" that several studies
have shown does nothing to "inhibit or prevent student drug use,"
said Brett Shirk, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas and
Western Missouri.

Drug-abuse prevention is certainly desirable, he said, arguing that
money would be better spent on programs that educate kids about the
dangers of these substances.

Another skeptic is lawyer Donna Whiteman, assistant executive
director of legal services for the Kansas Association of School Boards.

She argued that random testing does not guarantee a drug-free student body.

"Kids could still be using it," Whiteman said. "Their number is just
not up for a test."

She estimated that the number of districts in Kansas that use random
testing could be counted on one hand. The figure for Missouri is
about 10 percent, according to estimates from the state high school
activities association and the school boards group.

Joplin is one Missouri district doing random testing, and the El
Dorado district near Wichita began a broad program this school year
that even governs participation in school dances.

El Dorado school board member Vicki Coash said some students had
grumbled about the testing, but for the most part, "Kids accepted it
and just went on."

Joplin tests about 20 high school students per week, and assistant
superintendent Steve Doerr said fewer than 10 percent of the tests
had come back positive.

Endorsing the Oak Grove policy, grandparents Ed and Ruth Rose said
the testing can be a wake-up call for parents who are unaware of
children's drug use.

But when you are talking about students' health, Oak Grove parent
Christy Ackerman asked, the cost might not be the critical issue.

"When it can save your kid's life," she said, "is it really that much?"