School Officials Wary of ‘Drug-Free’ Program : Antelope Valley: A plan for voluntary tests of students fails to win support from three of five board members.

A proposal to create the state’s first “drug-free youth” club, which would provide financial rewards to high school students who pass voluntary random drug tests, has run into an obstacle: the Antelope Valley Union High School District board.

Board members have expressed serious reservations about the proposal by Billy Pricer, a retired deputy sheriff turned minister who asked the board to allow his youth organization to conduct voluntary drug tests for students at district schools.

During the past three weeks, Pricer has gathered support from political and business leaders for a privately financed club that would give students identification cards entitling them to discounts at local businesses if they submit to drug tests.

But opposition arose from critics who said the program would endanger civil liberties.

At a meeting Wednesday, three of the five high school board members said they do not support the idea in its current form. They cited legal problems inherent in drug testing, the potential of harassment by students policing other students for drug use and--although Pricer did not ask the board for money--the burden on facilities and time that testing students would impose on the district.

“I’m not in favor of adding another layer of responsibility on the school system,” board President Jarold Wright said. “We are up to our necks already in other things.”

Wright said he believes Pricer should ask some other organization, such as the local chapter of the American Medical Assn., to help him administer the program.

Board member Wilda Andrejcik said she fears the devastating impact of an inaccurate test result. “I’m thinking we could do a great injustice to several kids that would be terrible. We could do something that could ruin their lives forever,” she said.

Board member Steve Landaker, however, said he backs Pricer and the proposal has widespread support among parents.

“The community wants this program,” Landaker said. “We should get behind the program and support them.”

All of the board members said they needed more information on how the plan would work. Board member Bob McMullen suggested surveying the district’s 11,000 students and basing the board’s decision on the results. After the meeting, Pricer said he will lobby the school board members individually. Four parents and four students told the board they favor the “Drug-Free Youth” proposal, which is modeled on a three-year-old program in Texas where up to 90% of the students at some schools volunteered for drug tests. The lone speaker in opposition Wednesday was Clancy Corbett, director of the Antelope Valley Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependency, who dismissed the plan as a gimmick.

Members of the local NAACP, who have said they fear minority youths who do not join such a club would be stigmatized as drug abusers, did not attend.