BOARD RULING SPAWNS DEBATE

While the Huntsville ISD board of trustees laid the topic of
mandatory drug testing aside at Thursday night's monthly meeting, the
controversial issue has left several board members concentrating on
what to do next.

J.T. Langley, president of the HISD board, said that although he was
not in attendance at Thursday's meeting, he feels the issue needs
further study.

An independent survey conducted among students at Huntsville High
School and Mance Park Middle School indicated about a 30 percent
incidence of drug use among students, Langley said, and those figures
are much higher than the figures accumulated by the drug task force
appointed to study the issue for the school board.

"That's a pretty high number," he said. "Even if you took a third
off, you're still looking at 20 percent or better. We need to
readdress our survey. We need to determine whether it's good."

Langley said he feels strongly that while the board has made a
decision concerning the proposed drug testing plan at HISD, the
problems may still exist, and he wants to be certain the board and
the community work together to find solutions that are good for
children.

"I believe we're headed down the right path in our thinking," he
said. "But it may take further study. We need to come together and
work together as a community to solve these problems."

It is not just the issue of drug use that concerns Langley. The
survey indicated problems with sexual behavior, alcohol use,
depression and suicidal thinking among area teens, he said.

"Do we tackle them all? As a school district I don't think we can
tackle them all. I don't think we've got the people or the resources
to tackle them all."

As a parent of teenagers, Langley understands inherently the problems
involved in parenting and educating children about the dangers in
their lives. He said missing the Thursday night meeting was an
extremely difficult choice for him because it forced him to decide
between being there for the children of the district and being there
for his daughter who was involved in playoffs with the Huntsville
High School volleyball team.

"I felt like I just had to make that choice," he said. "One of my
things about being on the board is (to be there) for kids, and with
critical decisions going on, it was a hard decision."

Board member Patrick Antwi, who presided over Thursday's meeting in
Langley's absence, agrees that discussion on the issue must continue.

"I think from the discussion we had (Thursday) ... we need to look at
a plan or a policy that deals with substance abuse on our campuses,"
Antwi said. "I think in the end we may go to some kind of drug
testing."

Although he voted against the policy on Thursday night, Antwi said he
feels a problem with drugs does exist in HISD and believes it is the
responsibility of the board to address it.

"I do think there is a problem, and it's something we need to talk
about or workshop about," he said. "I believe that if you're a
student, if you take part in any extracurricular or co-curricular
activity, you need to be drug-free."

Both Langley and Antwi stressed that the board's concerns over drug
use and the drug-testing policy represent a determination on the part
of the board to help children, not to hinder, punish or embarrass
them.

"We need some kind of policy," Langley said, "but it is our first
priority is to inform the community that we're not out to punish
kids."

Langley said that whatever action the board decides to take next, it
needs to be community-driven and community-cooperative so that the
problem can be addressed from a variety of viewpoints.

"We still need to work on touching kids and helping them," he said.
"I would say, "it may not be your child. It may not be my child, but
it's somebody's child,' and as a community we still need to look at
ways to help our kids.

"The thing is, we want to be able to say, "your child tested
positive, what can we do to help you?' We're not here to police.
That's not our job. ... We just want to help."

Langley feels one solution might be a volunteer program whereby
parents or teachers could identify a problem with a student and
recommend action be taken. The students would then, with parental
encouragement and permission, volunteer to submit to drug testing in
order to get the needed help.

Antwi said he believes such a plan would work well, especially if
coupled with strong educational tools in the classroom.

"We have a "reasonable suspicion plan' in place now," he said, "and I
think we should draw on that. We don't want to micro-manage (our
campuses) or tell them how to do their jobs or check to see that
they're doing them, you know. They're doing what they can. ... But I
think we need to be a little more strong, more firm about what we
teach (the students). I think we need to be more thorough."

Every student should know there are consequences for drug use, Antwi
said, and that message should come from every teacher and every
parent, he said, so that children will not give in to the pressures
that influence them to make negative choices.

"Every teacher and parent should take responsibility so that if you
suspect somebody is not acting right ... that you make that call and
get those parents involved.

"Kids face a lot," he said. "We just want to be able to tell them
"You're going to have tough choices out there as an adult,' but at
least we can say, "We have done our part in educating you.'"