Post by Mech on Mar 8, 2004 13:29:33 GMT -5
Treating our schoolkids like criminals. Guilty till proven innocent.
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Portable drug test for students to get tryout in Palm Beach County
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/
sfl-pdrugs05mar05,0,390125.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
By Marc Freeman and Jennifer Peltz
Staff Writers
Posted March 5 2004
Move over, drug-sniffing dogs. Now Palm Beach County school officials are using aerosol sprays and paper swabs to quickly weed out high school students on dope.
Administrators at all 23 county high schools are being trained to use a new drug test whenever they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a student is using illegal drugs, based on appearance or bad behavior, said schools Police Chief Jim Kelly.
The school district is one of 22 across the country, and the only one in Florida, taking part in a free trial program that puts the drug detection kits in schools. It's supported by a $650,000 grant from the federal government's National Institute of Justice, Kelly said.
The test, similar to what's used in airport security, works by rubbing a sticky paper on a student's body or possessions, then spraying the paper with chemicals. If various colors appear, it means there is evidence of marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy, or several other drugs. The results are "instantaneous" and highly accurate, said Kelly and the product's manufacturer, the Mistral Group of Bethesda, Md.
"It's the least intrusive search I can think of," Kelly said. "You can do someone's fingers, a book bag, different things."
When a test is positive for drugs, the student's parents will be notified. No other action or prosecution will occur unless the drugs are found from a search, Kelly said.
The district has no other formal testing program, other than dispatching drug dogs to campuses when drug use may be suspected.
Broward schools have no programs to test whether a student has been using drugs other than observation, officials say.
Palm Beach County officials stress that their new program is not random testing, which has been more controversial.
"[The new tests] are another tool, another resource to help our students remain drug-free," said Kathleen Perry, principal of Olympic Heights High west of Boca Raton. Her school was one of the first campuses to get the drug detection kits, which have a retail price of $239 and can test 100 students.
Kelly said the tests were delivered to the Boca Raton area high schools and Atlantic High in Delray Beach and are in the process of being sent to all county high schools. They have alerted officials to drug use on at least one occasion so far, he said.
The testing doesn't sound fair to Adam Jacobson, a 10th-grader at Atlantic High.
"I know there's a bad drug problem in the schools," he said. "But I'd feel more comfortable if they asked the parents' consent first. It's crossing the line."
Bruce Harris, parent of an Olympic Heights 10th-grader and former chief counsel for the school district, likes the testing as long as it doesn't violate constitutional rights. "Something needs to be done to keep drugs off campus," he said.
Nationwide, 51 percent of high school seniors have used illegal drugs, according to an annual survey financed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The percentage has fallen from almost 55 percent in 1999.
The Supreme Court has allowed random drug testing of middle and high school students involved in extracurricular activities.
The White House sees testing students as a way to fight drug addiction by deterring drug use, steering users to treatment and protecting their peers from their influence. Administration drug czar John P. Walters compares it to requiring tuberculosis tests of students entering public school.
"Nobody considers that a civil rights violation. Essentially, it's a sound public health policy," Walters, director of the federal Office of Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics say the opposite. The ACLU has challenged random school drug testing as invasive, unconstitutional and ineffective.
"As a policy matter, violating students' rights while doing nothing to reduce the amount of drug use in schools makes little sense," ACLU drug policy chief Graham Boyd said in a news release last year.
If a student in Broward schools appears to be under the influence of drugs, an administrator is expected to contact the child's parent, perhaps call the hospital and in some situations, notify police, said schools Police Supervisor Charles Rawls and Personnel Administrator Richard Mijon.
Random drug testing and searches of lockers or backpacks without probable cause is not allowed. But if administrators have reason to think a student is in possession of drugs, they can search that student and their belongings, Rawls and Mijon said.
Staff Writer Bill Hirschman contributed to this story.
******
Portable drug test for students to get tryout in Palm Beach County
www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/
sfl-pdrugs05mar05,0,390125.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
By Marc Freeman and Jennifer Peltz
Staff Writers
Posted March 5 2004
Move over, drug-sniffing dogs. Now Palm Beach County school officials are using aerosol sprays and paper swabs to quickly weed out high school students on dope.
Administrators at all 23 county high schools are being trained to use a new drug test whenever they have a "reasonable suspicion" that a student is using illegal drugs, based on appearance or bad behavior, said schools Police Chief Jim Kelly.
The school district is one of 22 across the country, and the only one in Florida, taking part in a free trial program that puts the drug detection kits in schools. It's supported by a $650,000 grant from the federal government's National Institute of Justice, Kelly said.
The test, similar to what's used in airport security, works by rubbing a sticky paper on a student's body or possessions, then spraying the paper with chemicals. If various colors appear, it means there is evidence of marijuana, heroin, Ecstasy, or several other drugs. The results are "instantaneous" and highly accurate, said Kelly and the product's manufacturer, the Mistral Group of Bethesda, Md.
"It's the least intrusive search I can think of," Kelly said. "You can do someone's fingers, a book bag, different things."
When a test is positive for drugs, the student's parents will be notified. No other action or prosecution will occur unless the drugs are found from a search, Kelly said.
The district has no other formal testing program, other than dispatching drug dogs to campuses when drug use may be suspected.
Broward schools have no programs to test whether a student has been using drugs other than observation, officials say.
Palm Beach County officials stress that their new program is not random testing, which has been more controversial.
"[The new tests] are another tool, another resource to help our students remain drug-free," said Kathleen Perry, principal of Olympic Heights High west of Boca Raton. Her school was one of the first campuses to get the drug detection kits, which have a retail price of $239 and can test 100 students.
Kelly said the tests were delivered to the Boca Raton area high schools and Atlantic High in Delray Beach and are in the process of being sent to all county high schools. They have alerted officials to drug use on at least one occasion so far, he said.
The testing doesn't sound fair to Adam Jacobson, a 10th-grader at Atlantic High.
"I know there's a bad drug problem in the schools," he said. "But I'd feel more comfortable if they asked the parents' consent first. It's crossing the line."
Bruce Harris, parent of an Olympic Heights 10th-grader and former chief counsel for the school district, likes the testing as long as it doesn't violate constitutional rights. "Something needs to be done to keep drugs off campus," he said.
Nationwide, 51 percent of high school seniors have used illegal drugs, according to an annual survey financed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The percentage has fallen from almost 55 percent in 1999.
The Supreme Court has allowed random drug testing of middle and high school students involved in extracurricular activities.
The White House sees testing students as a way to fight drug addiction by deterring drug use, steering users to treatment and protecting their peers from their influence. Administration drug czar John P. Walters compares it to requiring tuberculosis tests of students entering public school.
"Nobody considers that a civil rights violation. Essentially, it's a sound public health policy," Walters, director of the federal Office of Drug Control Policy, said in an interview Thursday.
But the American Civil Liberties Union and other critics say the opposite. The ACLU has challenged random school drug testing as invasive, unconstitutional and ineffective.
"As a policy matter, violating students' rights while doing nothing to reduce the amount of drug use in schools makes little sense," ACLU drug policy chief Graham Boyd said in a news release last year.
If a student in Broward schools appears to be under the influence of drugs, an administrator is expected to contact the child's parent, perhaps call the hospital and in some situations, notify police, said schools Police Supervisor Charles Rawls and Personnel Administrator Richard Mijon.
Random drug testing and searches of lockers or backpacks without probable cause is not allowed. But if administrators have reason to think a student is in possession of drugs, they can search that student and their belongings, Rawls and Mijon said.
Staff Writer Bill Hirschman contributed to this story.