Seventeen-year-old Nat Wells doesn’t think much about the idea of testing students for drugs.

Such testing — random or otherwise — isn’t part of the Lawrence school district’s policy. Even if it was, Wells said he didn’t think he’d have a problem with it.

“It may be a good idea for athletes because of performance-enhancing drugs,” said Wells, a member of the Lawrence High School golf team. “There aren’t really performance enhancing drugs for golf.”

But for more than two years, school districts across the nation have had the green light to test students who participate in competitive after-school activities or teams. That means anyone from the school’s top student athlete to the kid operating the audio-visual equipment may be subject to random testing.

It’s unknown how many districts or schools in Kansas are testing students. The Kansas State Department of Education doesn’t collect that type of information.

But many schools are getting involved in drug testing. The U.S. Department of Education offers grants specifically to cover costs associated with student drug tests.

School districts in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland and Texas have been awarded the grants. All of the recipients indicated they wanted to do student testing in hopes of deterring students from using drugs.

Lawrence school board President Leni Salkind said she couldn’t recall whether drug testing of students was something the board had discussed. For the board to look at taking such action, she said, people in the community or school administrators would have to see a need.

‘Set the tone’

Lawrence High School Principal Steve Nilhas and Free State High School Principal Joe Snyder both said they wanted to prevent drug abuse. But they said they would consider drug testing only if teachers or coaches thought there was a problem in the school.

Both said they thought the district’s current policy was working.

Audio: Steve Nilhas, part 1 Audio: Steve Nilhas, part 2 Audio: Steve Nilhas, part 3 Audio: Steve Nilhas, part 4

Currently, there are drug prevention specialists in schools across the district. Lawrence schools also start early to educate students about drug abuse. Nilhas said such tactics have shown positive results.

“I think we’ve gone through cycles in terms of drug issues,” Snyder said. “The community and the board have pretty clearly set the tone as to what they expect, and I think it has worked well for us.”

Nilhas also said that while the U.S. Supreme Court has said districts and schools could test for drugs, it doesn’t mean an individual person’s rights shouldn’t be taken into account.

“If something like this were done, it would need community support and input because of some of the implications attached, like privacy issues,” he said.

Nilhas added that other steps could be taken, including early education, parental involvement and community involvement.

A community’s choice

The subject is a touchy one. Nationally, some school officials don’t broach the subject matter with community members. Other schools, however, have began the program with a great deal of support.

In Columbus, in Cherokee County in southeast Kansas, the district’s student drug-testing program is entering its fifth year.

For the past four years, from three to five high school students and three or four junior high school students involved in extracurricular school activities have been selected at random every week for testing.

Supt. Ken Jones said he was comfortable with requiring the students to submit to random tests because they were choosing to participate in activities such as sports, clubs and dances at the school.

Money from the district’s Drug Free Schools grant covers the bulk of the costs associated with tests, which adds up to about $5,000 annually. Even if the grant funds weren’t available, Jones said he thought people would want to continue the program.

“I recall one parent of an eighth grader who felt like the testing was a violation of rights,” he said. “But other than that, the program seems to be well received. The coaches support it and the parents support it. This is something that I think each district and community has to make the decision. It may work here, but that doesn’t mean it will work everywhere.”