DRUG-TEST THE CHESS CLUB?

More and more schools require students to pass a drug test to participate
in extracurricular activities - even the honor society. While most teens
simply adjust, a few outraged families just say no.

Delaware Valley High School in Pike County, Pa., 70 miles northwest of New
York City, is deploying a new weapon in its war against drug use by
students: drug-testing them for extracurricular activities. Starting this
year, every student who wants to join in activities - from yearbook and
chess club to sports and drama--must take a school-administered drug test.
The practice, an expansion of the more common testing of student athletes,
is gaining acceptance in a small but growing number of districts around the
nation:

Rushville, Ind. Rush County High School began testing all students involved
in extracurricular activities in 1996. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to
hear a challenge in October.

San Bernardino, Calif. This is perhaps the largest school district (10,000
students; four high schools) with a mandatory drug-testing program. Only
two students have tested positive in two years.

Plummer, Idaho. The Plummer-Worley district began mandatory testing this
year of athletes, cheerleaders and student body officers.

Dade County, Fla. Miami-Dade Public Schools this year launched a voluntary
drug-testing program for all high school students, requiring consent from
both parents and students.

In Pennsylvania's Pike County, schools launched the new anti-drug effort
for middle and high school students after a teenager was arrested last year
for selling heroin on school grounds. "The community was appalled," says
Superintendent Candis Finan. In addition, 3 percent of the district's
sixth-graders said in a survey that they had smoked marijuana at least once
in the past 30 days, a rate slightly higher than the national average. Of
the 1,000 students tested so far, one has come up positive.

Students still are adjusting to the new requirement. On a recent afternoon
at Delaware Valley High School, while students on the yearbook staff were
scrambling to meet deadlines, two girls dropped by to offer help. One small
problem: "You haven't been drug-tested yet," teacher Jacquelyn Weston
reminded one of the girls. The upshot: She couldn't participate.

Despite broad acceptance among students and parents, there are pockets of
resistance. "To test everybody just because they volunteer for something
shows a basic lack of trust in students and families," says Sarah Casey, a
17-year-old senior who passed a drug test to participate in the environment
club and the National Honor Society.

Adds her mother, Sue Casey, one of two school board members who opposed
testing: "If a kid smokes a joint on a Friday night and shows up Monday and
fails a drug test, but performance in school is never affected, is that the
school's responsibility?"

At least one family is preparing to sue the school system, saying drug
testing amounts to unreasonable search and seizure, according to its
attorneys. "It's an invasion of privacy," says 17-year-old Jen Stangl, a
senior who took the test to get a parking permit. "It was disgusting. I
felt violated. They just presumed everyone was guilty."

Checked-by: Richard Lake