Major drug problems rare

While WNC educators believe drug problems exist, they say they don’t believe it yet warrants taking steps to test more students.

“I don’t think we have a problem of epidemic proportions, but I think it is becoming more available,” said Ken Nicholson, principal at Smoky Mountain High School in Jackson County. “The sad thing is kids are making decisions without thought of what the prospects are. A lot of kids don’t abuse at school, but weekends and summers are times when they use alcohol and drugs. I don’t really see that, unless we had a more serious problem, that we need to test more students.”

Many WNC school districts have only recently started testing student athletes for drugs. Others districts are considering adding a policy this year.

Jackson County began random drug testing for athletes in the last five years, while Swain County started two years ago. Macon County Schools has adopted a drug testing policy for athletes that goes into effect this year. Haywood County does not test student-athletes for drugs.

“We put in a random drug testing policy for the upcoming year,” said Gary Shields, principal of Franklin High School. “Last year, at the beginning of the fall season, we had to dismiss some student athletes for possession of drugs. We dismissed them from the team and that kind of put a cloud over the remaining teams.”

Shields said the effort to devise a policy was initiated by other students.

“They came to me and asked ‘Can you do anything to get this crowd away from us?’” Shields said.

Franklin High’s policy, modeled after the Veronia v. Acton court ruling, requires all students participating in sports recognized by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association to be subject to suspicionless random drug testing. Parents or guardians of the student athletes are required to sign a written consent for drug testing prior to participating in the athletic program.

If the drug test is positive, parents can request a second test, at their own expense, to be conducted immediately. If the second test proves positive, students must participate for six weeks in an assistance program that includes weekly drug tests, at their own expense; and they will be suspended from athletics for the remainder of the current season. They can be retested at the start of the next athletic season for which he or she is eligible.

The testing method is spelled out in detail in the policy: “The method of obtaining the sample should cause no more intrusion than is typically encountered in a locker room or bathroom setting. The Supreme Court acknowledges a different privacy expectation for boys and girls in this regard. The Veronia School District’s policy and practice required boys to produce urine samples at a urinal while fully clothed with the male monitor observing from behind. The girls produced urine samples in closed stalls while a female monitor listened for sounds of tampering.”

Since Swain County enacted the drug testing for athletes, no one has tested positive for drugs, said Robert White, school system superintendent.

In Jackson County, random drug testing of athletes has been conducted about twice a season for the last four or five years, officials said.

“I do know of cases where somebody has been kicked off the team and not allowed to play, but we have had no complaints about it,” said McCary. “We don’t do everybody at one time, but at some point we get everybody.”

No mass testing planned

Neither Swain, Macon nor Jackson county plans to act on the new freedom given them by the Supreme Court any time soon. Instead, Jackson County is pursuing an approach begun last year that McCary said he hopes will encourage more students and parents to reveal when they believe there is a drug or other safety problem the school system needs to address.

“We’ve got some other measures — like systematic surveys of kids and parents — that we plan to use,” McCary said. “We are really trying to work against the no-tell policy, because there are certain things that kids can engage in that are highly dangerous, but a lot of this stuff has more to do with trust and communication across generations.”

The systematic surveys stem from a Safe Schools Advisory Panel formed last year with three goals in mind: to provide more training and procedures to help all school children; addressing the student “code of silence” and how school personnel can work to increase students’ trust in adults; and working with parents to recognize possible incidents of child sexual abuse and the steps to prevent it.

Last year, Jackson County school psychologist Allen Painter and Health Coordinator Larry McDonald developed a School Safety Needs Assessment that included input from parents, teachers, staff and students. This year, the plan is to build on the information gathered in the assessment by convening school focus groups to evaluate the current school climate and form whatever strategies are needed; and to develop and/or identify survey instruments that allow for more input of the current school climate.

Also beginning this school year, Jackson County officials plan to provide comprehensive in-service training on verbal, physical and sexual abuse and harassment issues to administrators, teachers and staff.

Painter, who also is a coach, said the initial survey was not comprehensive, but brought up several interesting issues that bear further scrutiny, such as ways of keeping lines of communication open concerning abuse or violence. While the issues raised by the Supreme Court decision relate to curbing drug use, both Painter and McCary believe the direction Jackson County is taking may help create ways of achieving the same goals without resorting to the kind of drug testing the court’s decision allows.

The survey conducted last year gave them a sense of who students were going to now to report abuse, which will be grist for the mill for the focus groups and school safety teams, Painter said. This gives them a tool for responding to issues as they surface, whether the issue is violence, drug abuse, tobacco use or something else, he said.

“We’ve had a lot of students report that they don’t like tobacco smokers and it is important that they be heard,” Painter said. “We want students more and more to take ownership of this process.”

In Haywood County, school officials are just starting to move toward a drug testing policy. At a Haywood County principals meeting last week, school officials began working on a timeline to develop a drug testing policy, but Anne Garrett, associate superintendent of Haywood County Schools, said attention will most likely be focused on the Supreme Court’s Veronia vs. Acton decision, not the new ruling.

“That’s all we’re looking at right now,” Garrett said. “I’ve asked Allison Schafer, with the North Carolina School Boards Association, to look at what surrounding counties are doing.”

As a part of moving toward developing a policy, Garrett said there would be process for involving students and parents, as well as educators. She said it is unlikely that a policy will be presented to the Haywood County Board of Education until sometime after Christmas.

Another reason for not moving quickly to take advantage of this new freedom is the potential cost of testing more students, Shields said.

“I don’t know how far we can continue to go,” Shields said. “I do agree that any organizations that represent our school are expected to adhere to all rules and regulations of the school, and that includes when the band or chorus goes someplace and are there in the school’s name. But I don’t know who’s going to pay for all this. Our ABC board gave us the money to pay for the drug testing we’re going to do.”

Keeping options open

Though school leaders don’t see an immediate need to expand drug testing, many believe it is a good idea to keep the door open for future use.

“Our thinking is we’re not trying to catch people, but if a kid is tested they can turn around and say they were drug free,” White said.

“For me, it just gives us more flexibility if we choose to go in that direction,” said Rodney Shotwell, superintendent of Macon County Schools. “I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse that the Supreme Court made this decision, but I inherently believe students do good things by nature, but are influenced to do bad things. I’m not sure where it’s going to end — the band, the chorus? Do you test the chess club? But we’re not going to abuse this new judicial right given us.”