MORE SCHOOLS CONSIDERING DRUG SCREENING

Sterling High School students who participate in extracurricular activities might soon have to pass a new test: a random drug test.

A recommendation from a task force is expected by late fall or early next year, Superintendent Jack McCulley said.

"We have to determine how great a need is there," McCulley said.  Last school year, a dozen students at the Somerdale high school - fewer than 1 percent of the student body - were disciplined for drug or alcohol use, he said.

The Camden County district would become at least the seventh in South Jersey to mandate student drug tests, officials said.

County Prosecutor Vincent Sarubbi hopes more follow.  For the last year, he has lobbied for drug testing as part of an antiviolence campaign in the county's 37 public school districts.  He has made Power Point presentations at four school board meetings, including at Sterling.

Camden and Pine Hill also are considering random drug testing, Sarubbi said.  Gloucester Township, a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade district, decided against it.

"We just weren't sure at this point that we were ready to jump into that," Gloucester Township Superintendent Robert Suessmuth said.

At least 11 of New Jersey's 615 public school districts have random drug-testing policies, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association.  In South Jersey, they are Collingswood, Florence, Pennsauken, West Deptford, Clearview Regional, and Washington Township in Gloucester County.

Some experts estimate that fewer than half of all school districts nationwide randomly test students for drugs.

Court rulings on such testing have been mixed.

In 2002, the U.S.  Supreme Court expanded drug testing in public schools from athletes only to participants in any extracurricular team or activity.  The court stopped short of allowing random testing for any student.

In a case involving the Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in November that students have broader privacy rights under the state constitution and barred "suspicionless" drug screening.

To impose drug tests, the courts said, districts must show that students they want to test have a drug problem, and that the testing would address the problem, said Sean Fields, associate counsel for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Fields could not estimate how many districts have adopted drug-testing policies.  The ruling might have forced some districts to halt any such plans, he said.

In New Jersey, the state Supreme Court allowed a Hunterdon Central Regional High School policy of randomly testing athletes, participants in after-school programs, and students who park their cars on campus.  Unlike in Pennsylvania, districts do not have to prove there is a drug problem.

Under New Jersey regulations, public schools can order drug testing for students suspected of being under the influence.  That policy is unrelated to the random screening backed by Sarubbi.

Camden School Board President Philip E.  Freeman Sr.  said he would support drug testing if the district could provide counseling.  "Otherwise, it is just a Band-Aid program," he said.

Civil-liberties groups oppose drug testing as an invasion of privacy.

"It's sold as a panacea," said Roseanne Scotti, executive director of Drug Alliance New Jersey.  "The evidence is pretty strong that it doesn't work."

A nationwide study last year by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan found no difference in drug use between students at schools that conduct testing and those at schools that do not.

Scotti said districts should use their resources to hire more guidance counselors to identify students at risk.

At Sterling High, a preliminary proposal calls for testing the urine of three random students each week, said Jennifer Ivins-Elder, the district's substance-awareness coordinator.  Each test would cost between $40 and $90, she said.

Nearly 1,000 students from Magnolia, Somerdale, Stratford, Hi-Nella and Laurel Springs attend the school.

The district plans fall forums with parents, students and community leaders to discuss whether drug testing should be implemented.

Students who participate in athletics or other extracurricular programs or who park their cars on campus would be subject to screening, Ivins-Elders said.

To offset the testing costs, Sterling has applied for a $75,000 matching federal grant through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Test results would be disclosed only to parents and students, but opponents say the information sometimes leaks.

Counseling would be provided for students who test positive, or parents could arrange for private counseling, Ivins-Elder said.  Students would not face delinquency charges, Sarubbi said.