DRUG-TEST PLAN HAS REWARDS FOR STUDENTS

MATHEWS - High school students might be asked to agree to random drug
tests in return for incentives that include free admission to school
events and free parking.

The voluntary program, apparently the first of its kind in any
Virginia public school system, was presented to the county School
Board at its January meeting and could be voted on as early as Feb.
19, officials said.

"We think that it's unique and a very positive approach," said Dr.
Georg T. Kidd, the assistant school superintendent.

"The goal here was to provide help for students who need help - not to
be 'I got you!'"

Although the proposal has been well-received so far by adults and most
students in this rural Middle Peninsula county bordering the
Chesapeake and Mobjack bays, it is also weathering some attacks on
legal and other grounds by out-of-county critics including the
American Civil Liberties Union.

The Mathews High School Voluntary Drug Screening Program, as it is
known officially, grew from a yearlong study by a committee of
administrators, par-ents and students that formed after a handful of
students on the football team were caught smoking marijuana.

The mother of one of the boys asked the School Board to consider the
sort of mandatory drug-testing programs for student athletes that had
been upheld as legal by the U.S. Supreme Court and used in Virginia by
schools in Lynchburg and Salem.

But the committee decided against a mandatory testing program for
athletes or other students involved in extracurricular activities.
Superintendent Harry M. Ward, a former football coach at the high
school, said he opposed singling out students who were making the
extra effort to be involved in extracurricular activities.

Then Mary B. Whitley, who became high school principal this school
year, suggested a schoolwide, voluntary program. The idea was quickly
embraced and refined by committee members, she said.

Whitley, who had previously been assistant principal of the
420-student high school, said the voluntary program not only will
discourage drug use by students, but also will lead families to
discuss the issue of teen-age drug use and protect specific group of
students from being singled out for special treatment.

"We're making it available as what we're considering to be a good
service for the community," Whitley said.

School officials and members of the committee began circulating
information about the proposal shortly before the winter break to see
how students and parents would react.

"There have only been positive comments, I think because it's
voluntary," said Kidd, the assistant superintendent.

While no adults have raised ideological or legal objections to school
officials, School Board members postponed voting on the proposal in
January because they wanted a detailed explanation of how the costs of
the program will fit into next year's budget, Ward, the
superintendent, said.

Officials estimate the school will pay an independent testing company
about $2,500 a year to check urine samples from 10 randomly selected
students each month of the 10-month school year.

Two incentives - waiving the $25-a-year parking fee for participants
and giving them free admission to school events - could amount to as
much as $5,000 in lost revenue, Ward said, so the district must
contemplate overall costs of up to $7,500.

The other proposed incentives would be free tickets that school
officials hope might be available from attractions such as Busch
Gardens, and the right to miss four days of school, rather than three,
and still be eligible to skip taking final exams.

At the ACLU of Virginia, director Kent Willis said the proposal would
punish students who do not participate by denying them the rewards
given as incentives to those who do participate. Legally, he said,
that could amount to punishing students who choose not to give up
their constitutionally protected right to privacy.

Willis, who had not heard of the proposal before he was contacted by a
reporter, said his organization would ask the schools for information
and then take action to oppose it. Depending on relevant court
decisions, he said, the ACLU action could range from simply asking the
School Board not to adopt the policy - and explaining the legal
reasons not to - to warning officials to expect litigation if they
adopt the policy.

An editorial in the Newport News-based Daily Press leveled a somewhat
different criticism after the proposal was presented to the School
Board. The newspaper applauded the school system's determination to
fight high school drug use and lauded its desire not to discriminate
against certain groups of students. But the editorial said the program
has potential to make anyone who refuses to submit to tests a
"suspect" if the school makes random tests part of what's "normal."

A better alternative, the newspaper suggested, would be to make drug
tests available to families who would like them, "but take away the
incentives, the peer pressure and the normalization of searches."

Whitley, Mathews High School's principal, said that people are often
asked to surrender privacy rights for the greater good. She compared
taking the tests to submitting to luggage and shoe searches at airports.

Whitley also denied that peer pressure would be much of a factor
because students and their families would privately choose whether to
participate and would communicate their decision to her and not to the
whole school community.

Students interviewed in the hallways, library and parking lot,
however, appeared to believe they would know who had volunteered and
who hadn't.

"Whoever doesn't take [the tests], it probably shows that they do
drugs," said David Mabe, an 11th-grader.

"If they don't want to do it, then, obviously, they're hiding
something," said Janah Miller, also in 11th grade.

Most of a handful of students interviewed said they thought the
voluntary program was a good idea, especially the part about free
parking and free events admission.

A couple of students said they had discussed the privacy issue with
friends and had mixed feelings, but would probably sign up anyway if
the plan is adopted.

That would be fine with Janet Dehoux, the woman who brought the idea
to the School Board after her son was caught smoking marijuana while
on the football team in 10th grade.

Dehoux, who was PTA president at the time and more recently served on
the committee that developed the drug screening program, said she
wouldn't have believed her son could be experimenting with drugs if he
hadn't been caught.

Not only was he an athlete and generally good kid, his mother said,
but he had written the winning essay in his school's seventh-grade
drug awareness program.

"If you'd have told me a week before the whole thing happened that he
was doing pot, I'd have told you you're crazy," Dehoux said. "It just
kind of brought home the fact that you just don't know."

"If signing up for this program keeps one child from [taking drugs],"
she said, "it's worked."