STUDENTS MAY FACE DRUG TESTS

NEW MADRID -- Officials at New Madrid County Central High School have a serious message for students: Drug use will not be tolerated.

Beginning with the 1999-2000 school year, the R-1 school district will randomly test athletes and other students participating in interscholastic activities in 7th through 12 grades.

Any student who tests positive for drug use will not be allowed to participate in the activity for 21 days, a second positive test will bring a suspension from the activity for 365 days, and a third positive test will result in removal from all extracurricular activities sponsored by the school.

"The reason for the implementation of this program is to send the message that the R-1 District is serious about eliminating chemical abuse and to identify and offer assistance to those students who test positive," said Mike Barnes, New Madrid County R-1 superintendent.

Students who choose to participate in athletics and other activities must consent to a drug test.

Mandatory for all students who have to be tested or volunteer to be tested and their parents is a drug awareness session. The session will be presented by school officials and officials of Seglin Lab of Columbia, the drug-testing company.

Testing will be performed by Seglin, which will interpret results. Testing is planned at the beginning of each of the school's three sport seasons with a random test planned during each of the seasons.

All participating athletes and club members will be subject to random testing.

During each testing, half of those participating in the program will be randomly tested.

Since the participants are selected at random, an individual student may never be tested or if they participated in, for example, football in the fall, basketball in the winter and district choir competition in the spring, the student could be tested as many as six times.

All positive results will be resubmitted to a medical review officer for verification. All results will remain private.

The superintendent emphasized the program is not being implemented for the purpose of "kicking kids out of school or for turning violators of the policy over to law enforcement officials." If a student does test positive, the program coordinator will schedule a conference with the student's parents to explain the results. Counseling, at the student's expense, will be recommended.

Before a student who tests positive for drug use can return to the interscholastic or athletic activity, another test will be completed at the end of the suspension period and must show no drug use. Officials indicated no other punishment, other than removal from ctivities, will result from the positive test results.

While the superintendent said in an ideal situation all students and staff members would be subject to mandatory testing, legal counsel in the field of school-based drug testing has advised the R-1 Board against such a policy. Also the drug testing policy will not change the district's policies in dealing with drug possession.

However, Barnes added the new drug testing policy is a step in eliminating chemical abuse and providing help to those who are experiencing chemical abuse problems.

"We are doing this for safety reasons -- we are concerned about students hurting themselves and hurting others -- and we are trying to get them help," said Barnes. "This drug testing program will be a relatively expensive endeavor -- $15,000 to $20,000 annually -- but if it causes just one kid to turn away from drugs it will be money well spent."