Voluntary Student Drug Testing Plan Approved

Seeking to give students, in the words of one administrator, “a graceful way to say ‘no’ to drugs,” the San Diego city school board voted Tuesday to establish a voluntary drug testing program at seven high schools.

By a unanimous vote, the board adopted the unconventional tactic in the battle against teen-age drug use, and school officials and board members expressed the hope that the voluntary testing program, expected to begin later this month, will help students resist the peer pressure that they believe leads to casual drug use.

“The program is founded on the concept that most young people do not wish to use drugs, but nevertheless are frequently pressured into this negative behavior,” said Edward Fletcher, health services director for the school system.

Fletcher and other administrators emphasized that the program, similar to voluntary testing plans approved earlier by the Coronado Unified School District and the Fallbrook Union High School District, is not intended to identify or help hard-core drug users. It is designed to help those students who either infrequently use drugs or occasionally are tempted to do so in settings such as parties or when they are in the company of friends who use drugs, Fletcher said.

Under the program, students who agree to participate would be included in weekly lotteries in which about five names from each of the seven schools would be selected for urine tests to determine alcohol, marijuana, cocaine or other drug use. The students would need consent forms from their parents to be eligible.

Students who might otherwise have difficulty fending off peer pressure to use drugs then could cite the possibility of being tested as a reason, school officials said. And if student leaders and athletes strongly supported the program, the testing plan could lead to peer pressure to avoid drugs.

To help persuade students that the tests would be voluntary and confidential, city school personnel will not be involved in the program. The program would be administered by the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Task Force (ADAPT), an organization of local elected officials. ADAPT’s board of directors is expected to vote on the program later this week.

In the unlikely event that ADAPT declines to run the program, the school board presumably would have to find another independent agency to run it.

School officials would not know which students participate in the program or the results of the weekly tests, Fletcher said. The weekly lotteries would be conducted by a “non-school citizens committee,” and test results would be revealed to only the students and their parents or guardians.

“We want to make sure that kids know this is something to help them, not punish them,” Fletcher said.

The program would cost an estimated $40,000 a year, based on projections that about 200 students at each of the seven high schools--Clairemont, Kearny, Mira Mesa, Patrick Henry, Point Loma, San Diego and University City-- would initially agree to the testing. The district helps to defray most of those costs through private grants and voluntary $25 tax-deductible contributions from parents whose children participate.

Since the school board began contemplating such a program last spring, two major concerns have been expressed--questions about the accuracy of drug examinations and whether even voluntary tests infringe on students’ rights.

Fletcher said Tuesday that he has “full confidence” in the accuracy of the tests, which would be conducted at local hospitals or clinics and later analyzed by a firm specializing in drug testing.

The procedures approved by the school board call for the parents of the students selected in the weekly lottery to be notified by telephone to take their child to one of the testing sites, probably within 24 hours. Because the urine specimen would be taken at the testing site, students could not turn in specimens from friends or tamper with the specimens, Fletcher said.

In addition, if the test result was positive, indicating drug or alcohol use, a second test would be conducted as an accuracy safeguard. If that second test confirms the evidence of drug use, a physician would contact the parents and student to urge them to discuss the matter and offer referrals to drug treatment agencies, Fletcher said.

Parents of students whose tests show that they have not used drugs--at least not in the period immediately before the exam--would receive the good news via a letter from ADAPT.

The other major question about the tests focuses on whether the exams, despite being voluntary, are an invasion of privacy and infringe on students’ rights. Some skeptics have expressed concern that teens could be pressured to take the tests either by their fellow students or by their parents to prove they have “nothing to hide.”

“I want the students to be doing it voluntarily and not under the strong demand of the parents,” said board member Dorothy Smith.

Fletcher, though, said he would not be “overly concerned” if the program did generate peer pressure to avoid drug use. He also noted that, at some schools with voluntary testing plans already in place, students not participating in the programs told friends that they were involved to resist pressure to use drugs.

“I think we’ve had the other kind of negative pressure on them to take drugs,” Fletcher said. “I think if there’s something that can compel them not to, I’m pleased. In all the places where they’ve had programs such as this, that has happened, from what I’ve heard. There has been a very positive pressure.

“I think we’ve got to do everything we possibly can that’s legally and morally correct to prevent kids from using drugs.”

The local program is patterned after one started last fall among athletes at Edison High School in Huntington Beach. The program there has been a major success, with football players taping negative results on bulletin boards and wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Mean, Green and Clean.”

Hugh Watson, principal of Coronado High School, said “nothing so overt” has occurred at his school since it began a voluntary testing program among athletes in September. However, Watson said, “Acceptance by the kids has been excellent,” adding that school officials hope to make the program available to the entire student body later this school year.

“There just isn’t a lot of talk or controversy about it on the campus,” Watson said. “The reaction of most kids seems to be, ‘Aw, it’s no big deal--I’ll do it.’ ”

Part of the reason for that reaction is that, as San Diego’s school board President Susan Davis said Tuesday, the students most receptive to voluntary testing programs are “those kids who probably aren’t involved with drugs anyway and want to make a statement about it.”

Fletcher agreed but said that even so, the program could provide a valuable message.

“If we can establish athletes and school leaders as positive role models to encourage kids not to use drugs . . . that’s a big step in the right direction,” Fletcher said.