RUSSELL SUPERINTENDENT: STUDENTS TESTED FOR DRUGS ARE CLEAN SO FAR

RUSSELL - The Russell Independent School District screened another 24
students at random for illegal substances Tuesday.

That puts the number of students tested over the course of the school
year at 105 out of 702 who are eligible.

The district does not yet have the results of the most recent tests.

But before Tuesday, 81 students at Russell had been tested, and two
of those tests had come back positive, according to Superintendent
Ronnie Back.

Both of those results were caused by prescription medications and the
students involved were cleared, Back said at a board of education
meeting Tuesday.

The policy which allows the school to randomly test 20 percent of
student athletes and students who drive to school was adopted by the
Russell Board of Education over the summer after much debate.

Students are randomly selected by a computer off-site of any Russell schools.

The results so far have pleased school officials, but questions have come up.

Board member Rob Caniff said there were some things he would like to
see done differently.

"I would like to see them tested for drugs and alcohol," Caniff said.

The board member said he understood that one wave of tests would
focus on drugs while the next would be to detect alcohol in an
alternating fashion.

Back said that's not the way the policy is set up.

"That's not the way this reads," he said.

Alcohol aside, Caniff said he was even more concerned about the low
number of those who have volunteered to be tested.

The volunteer policy was added in an effort to test those who aren't
eligible under the policy - including teachers and administrators, as
well as to afford students, teachers and administrators a chance to
be proactive in declaring they are drug-free, school officials have
said.

But so far, the only two to volunteer to be tested are Caniff and
Russell Athletic Director Sam Sparks, Back said.

Caniff said he wants to "get this volunteer list up."

"We can't force people to volunteer," he said. "But we want to get
the word out to people that they can do this."

Caniff also emphasized that drug testing can do only so much, and
parents need to be involved with their children to prevent drug use
in the home.

"We're doing what we can," he said, adding it was up to the parents
to do the rest.

In addition to drug testing, Russell has also brought in a drug dog
to all four of its schools on random inspections this year.

Ricky Kirk, project coordinator with the Boyd & Greenup Youth Alcohol
Initiative, who was on-hand at Tuesday's school board meeting, said
he had talked with Russell students about the drug dog.

The program was having marginal success, according to the students, he said.

"The students are starting to know when the dog is coming," he said.
"Sometimes it's there early, or it stops at one classroom and they go
and tell another class and that class has time to throw things away.
I got the idea (the drug dog) was kind of a Band-Aid solution."

Back said he thinks the drug dog is working fine in conjunction with
the drug testing policy.

The dog has found an illicit substance once since the beginning of
the school year, and the student involved was suspended, Back said.

Overall, he said he thinks the two programs are working when it comes
to controlling drugs in the schools.

"We've had young people telling us it's made a difference in the
schools," Back said. "I think it's starting to make an impact."