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Random drug tests explored
Teens in extracurricular activities may one day be subject to testing
Random drug testing of Colorado Springs high school students involved in extracurricular activities is likely to begin in the next few years, experts say.
Such a move will require area school boards and administrators to grapple with testing policies. But more importantly, it will require school communities to recognize that teens do drugs and embrace stricter testing policies as a way to deter drug use.
Sierra High School showed interest in the possibility, sending Assistant Prin- cipal Gayle Hinrichs on a "fact-finding mission" for her new principal.
"Certainly for extracurriculars it's going to happen," said Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. "It's part of a trend. There's a tendency for schools to act like law enforcement."
Whether that trend reaches the Pikes Peak region in the next two or three years will be decided by people who work with students daily, such as Hinrichs.
She was the only one from the Pikes Peak region among 50 school administrators, parents and law enforcement officers who attended a forum in Pagosa Springs on April 24.
No public or private high schools in the Colorado Springs area do random drug testing for students in extracurricular activities. Most have a policy allowing them to order drug testing under a reasonable suspicion standard set by a 1995 Supreme Court decision that also allowed drug-sniffing dogs and locker and purse searches.
Most school policies include "honor codes" that require students to sign a form saying they will not use illegal drugs - such as marijuana, methamphetamine and opiates - or drink alcohol or use steroids.
Hinrichs traveled to Pagosa Springs to learn about random drug-testing programs and their major issues: student privacy and cost. She and other participants left with the tools needed to implement a policy, including samples of policies from around the country. But only if the school board and community decided one is needed, Hinrichs said.
Much of a five-hour forum led by the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy pertained to how school district officials can promote a random drug-testing policy to parents of students in extracurricular activities.
Many administrators left the forum convinced that such a policy is feasible but that selling the idea to parents may be difficult.
"They're the ones who will be most upset," Hazouri said. "Do you think the parents of the quarterback or the top girls tennis player thinks their kid does drugs?"
Some parents may welcome testing. Last month's forum came about after a group of concerned parents formed the Promoting Prevention Coalition of Pagosa Springs. A school official broached the subject of random drug testing at a board meeting after some high-profile incidents in the community.
"We knew there was a problem in Pagosa Springs, so we wanted to look into it," said coalition president Joanne Irons.
At Battle Mountain High School, six recent incidents have prompted the Eagle school board to make plans to consider the issue later this month, according to the Associated Press.
The fact that the White House delegation went to Pagosa Springs is an indication of the administration's desire for testing to spread nationwide.
"This is grass roots only," said Bertha Madras, the deputy director for demand reduction at the ONDCP. "This is not a mandate."
Madras said communities must have the will to random test once a need is recognized. Federal grants are available to pay for programs, she said.
"Every community has to decide if this will help," she said. "Don't allow passivity to get in the way."
That is usually one of the hurdles for a school community to clear: admitting there may be a problem.
"People simply don't want to face it head on," Madras said.
Ignacio High School, in the town of Ignacio, near Durango, is the only secondary school in Colorado to have random drug testing. Assistant Principal Melanie Taylor said in the program's three years no student has tested positive.
"We don't bury our heads in the sand and say we don't have a problem," she said. "Everyone does."
The cost - about $300 a year - is small at a school of 200 students, Taylor said. The school holds random testing two or three times each season for up to five students at a time, she said.
Each student is assigned a number that can come up in a plastic bingo ball turner. If a student's number comes up, they're pulled from class for a urine test.
That is the most cost-effective method, according to Sonja Hoppe of Southwest Laboratories of Phoenix. The most common tests look for marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, opiates and PCP. Adding steroids and human growth hormone costs more. Hoppe said that if masking agents and dilution are evident it prompts another test.
Because it costs up to $100 per test, Ignacio has never tested for steroids because none of its studentathletes show symptoms, Taylor said.
In Flemington, N.J., one in five is tested for steroids at Hunterdon Central High School. The school district defeated the ACLU in the landmark Supreme Court decision in 2002 that opened the door for random tests nationwide. The school of 1,000 students spends $20,000 a year, funded by the district.
"It's getting cheaper as technology improves," said Principal Chris Steffner. "We can always test for steroids if they show signs."
Madras said steroids are a small part of the overall drug problem addressed by random testing.
Since 2003, the federal Department of Education has awarded more than $36.1 million in multiyear grants to more than 80 school districts to support random testing programs in more than 400 schools.
The ONDCP said 1,000 schools and school districts around the country have reported to the federal government that they conduct random testing.
That number (reflected in the graphic) includes schools that received money, applied for money or came to the office's attention through media reports.
ONDCP general counsel Edward D. Jurith said he expects the number of school districts conducting random testing to grow.
Whether random drug testing will keep kids from using drugs is another issue.
"Teenagers think they're invincible; that they're never going to be the ones randomly tested," the ACLU's Hazouri said. "To be really effective, how many will you have to test?"
For proponents, stopping one child from doing drugs makes it worthwhile.
"Kids face peer pressure," Irons, of the Pagosa Springs parents group, said. "If we give them one more reason to say ‘No, I can't. I could be random tested,' then it's worth it."
Also, many communities may never decide there's a need.
"I don't anticipate ever doing it," said Calhan Superintendent Dave Freeman. "The drug-sniffing dogs have never found anything."
If the trend continues, all high school students, regardless of whether they are involved in extracurricular activities, could one day be tested randomly, Hazouri warned. That would face a fight from the ACLU.
"That has not been tested (in court), and the ACLU believes that is bad policy," she said.
"It says we don't trust you, so we're going to randomly test you."
If policies are implemented in Colorado Springs, it may be by consent forms. It's a first step many forum organizers urged when starting a random testing program.
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0260 or joseph.paisley@gazette.com
TESTING LIMITS
There are limits, established by legal precedent, to random drug testing:
- Federal money can go only to schools that have existing drug-prevention programs including referral to treatment or counseling for students identified as drug users.
- There can be no academic suspension for use, only the loss of extracurricular privileges.
- Testing results must remain confidential.
Funds for testing of students are limited to the following:
- Students who engage in competitive, extracurricular, school-sponsored activities
- Other students who, along with a parent or guardian, have signed a consent form to participate in a random testing program
