PARENTS OFFERED FREE KITS FOR HOME DRUG TESTS

JUSTIN - Northwest school district officials began handing out free
at-home drug-testing kits this week to parents of middle school
students who ask for them, making Northwest one the few districts in
north Texas that endorses drug testing for preteens.

The nonprofit organization that supplies the free kits was founded by
an Arizona couple who also own the company that sells the kits.

District officials said they received about 150 of the 300 kits they
requested from the nonprofit group, notMYkid, which says the
Northwest program is its first in Texas. The group has started its
program in schools in Nebraska, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California and
Kentucky, and is hoping to provide kits to schools in every state,
organizers said.

The nonprofit Arizona group was founded in 2000 by Debbie and Steve
Moak. In 2004, Steve Moak bought First Check, the California company
that sells the kits.

During a presentation at Pike Middle School on Monday, Debbie Moak
told a group of Northwest parents that drug prevention is her "sole
motivation." But Moak said later in an interview that the program
could eventually be a way for First Check to make money.

She said she and her husband started notMYkid after their experience
with their son, now 26, who began using drugs as a high school
freshman and ultimately ended up in rehabilitation. Initially she did
not notice anything unusual about his behavior.

"He was a model student," she said.

If drug-testing kits had been available to her, she might have been
able to intervene, Moak said.

"This is new technology," Moak said of the home kits.

She compared the partnership between notMYkid and First Check to
computer companies' donations of equipment to schools.

"They're doing it because it's the right thing to do," she said. "At
the same time, they're hoping to eventually make money off of it."

Ashley Birkett, 13, a Pike seventh-grader, said she wouldn't mind if
her mother, Renee, gave her one of the drug tests.

"I think it's a good idea," she said. "And I don't think that other
kids would mind."

Several Tarrant County school districts have drug-testing programs,
but Northwest is the only one in the area offering the voluntary home
kits. For example, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw has mandatory testing for
students in grades seven through 12 who participate in
extracurricular activities. Grapevine-Colleyville has testing only
for high school students; it is mandatory for students who
participate in extracurricular activities and voluntary for any
student whose parent requests it.

In Northwest, First Check donates the kits that notMYkid provides,
but only while supplies last. Then parents would have to buy the
kits, which sell for $27.99 on the notMYkid Web site. The kit detects
marijuana, cocaine, opiates and methamphetamine. Debbie Moak said she
recommends that parents test every six weeks.

The schools do not see test results. If parents want detailed
results, they can request them from the company's lab.

A parent told the school district about the program, said Cindy
Brown, Northwest executive director for student services, who
approved the program's presentations in the schools. Northwest
officials said they saw no conflict of interest after researching the program.

While notMYkid typically offers the drug kits for seventh-graders, it
opened up the Northwest program to parents of all middle school
students, Brown said. There are 2,034 middle school students in the district.

Dozens of kits were distributed at Northwest's three middle schools
this week, school officials said

"I think this is as far as I would want the school district to take
it," said Debbie Thomas, Northwest school board president, of the
district allowing the presentation. "I think it's a parent's decision."

The school board did not vote to offer the program, Thomas said. She
said she was not familiar with the company and declined to comment further.

Parents who didn't attend the presentations Monday and Tuesday at
Northwest will be able to request kits from assistant principals at
the middle schools, Brown said. But parents first will be directed to
a Web site to view a slide show of the drug-prevention presentation.

"But it's not just advocating drug testing for kids; there is a
prevention part with it, as well," Brown said.

Cindi Saporito of Fort Worth, whose child attends Pike Middle School,
said: "The best part of this is that it offers students a way out of
taking drugs.

"It's also a great way to bring the subject up of why you shouldn't use drugs."

Health officials caution that drug-testing kits are not a cure-all
for drug abuse.

"Parenting is tough work, and it means constantly communicating with
your children and making sure of what they are doing," said Eric
Niedermayer, executive director of the Tarrant Council on Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse in Fort Worth.

"If it's at a point where drug tests are necessary, then the family
probably needs counseling," he said.

Drug testing is just one tool, he said.

"I would not encourage any parent to be confident that because they
occasionally use it, or that because it sits on their table, that
it's a speech about not using drugs," Niedermayer said.

Few school districts in Texas offer student drug-testing programs.
Arlington and Fort Worth do not. In a 2004 survey by University
Interscholastic League, 242 Texas superintendents said their schools
test for drugs, while 773 said they do not.

Area schools offer an array of drug-prevention programs, but few
offer drug testing.

In Grapevine-Colleyville, results from mandatory random drug testing
are reported to the district. Results from the voluntary program are
sent only to parents. Several parents have opted for the voluntary
testing this year, said Dana Drew, interim director of special
assignments in Grapevine-Colleyville.

Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, White Settlement, Burleson, Granbury, Azle,
Cleburne and Joshua districts offer student drug-testing programs.

But Fort Worth, Arlington and Birdville school officials said they
are not considering drug testing.

"The community hasn't expressed a need or a desire for us to do
that," said Mark Thomas, Birdville spokesman.