Testing Clean For Drugs Earns Students Many Rewards
Drug testing is the hottest thing on North Side junior high and high school campuses since the return of 1970s polyester flamenco shirts. More than 300 students at three schools are being tested for participation in another ‘70s infatuation: recreation drugs.
The students are part of a fledgling state program called Washington Drug Free Youth (W-DFY). Membership is voluntary and its benefits are substantial. Clean students get discount cards good for fast food meals, laser tag games, bowling, movie passes, even Canadian ski vacations.
“They pee in the cup and they get the reward. It’s as simple as that,” said Katherine Hintyesz, Lakeside High School counselor and program coordinator.
More than 170 Mead Junior High students took tests last month, joining 142 Nine Mile Falls middle and high school students who started testing last year.
None has failed, although two students turned in their membership cards last year rather than take a random test. Deaconess and Sacred Heart medical centers cover the costs of the tests, which probe for marijuana, methamphetamine, alcohol and cocaine.
Students say the spectre of drug testing provides an easy excuse when they feel peer pressure to imbibe or smoke. “If I show them I’m in W-DFY, there’s not so much pressure,” Lakeside sophomore Kelly Henry. “It’s an easy way to say no.”
It’s also comforts parents, educators, even bosses. “The kids say, ‘I can tell my folks I’m drug free, I can tell my teachers I’m drug free, I can tell merchants I’m drug free, but this verifies it,”’ said Linda Thompson, administrator of the program and executive director of the Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council. “I think they like the credibility.”
Mead Junior High PTO president Kathy Perks agrees. She, along with her eighth-grade son, took - and passed - a drug test. “There’s no saying one thing and doing another,” said Perks. “The drug testing is the proof in the pudding.”
The Spokane School District has considered the idea. The Lewis and Clark High School football team took voluntary drug tests last fall, and Superintendent Gary Livingston supports the idea of W-DFY.
Students from other schools expressed interest in the program, including Mead High and Ferris High, although there is no formal plan to begin W-DFY programs at any other Spokane or Mead schools.
W-DFY is based on a Texas program that has spread across the country. Idaho Drug Free Youth has more than 2,000 students in 75 schools.
Because of the controversy inherent to youth drug testing, a Mead Junior High committee discussed the issue for a year. Some parents disliked the school linking drug test results to student conduct codes. If a Mead Junior High student fails, the student loses not only his or her W-DFY card but also his or her spot on an athletic team or student body office.
Perks, a member of the Mead committee, said parents were concerned the tests could become punitive. “You don’t make that commitment to be drug free, then not follow through,” she said. “It’s not punitive, it’s cause and effect.”
Advocates are busy lining up more sponsors. Thompson, the regional administrator, hopes to ink a deal with an insurance company that would give W-DFY students discounted car insurance. Chains like McDonalds and Pizza Pipeline already participate, and several local photo studios give W-DFY card carriers cheap portraits.
Thompson also hopes businesses will hire W-DFY students. “It’s to their advantage,” she said. “(An employer) knows it’s not a kid who will come to work high on marijuana, or drive home wearing a Burger King outfit and get in trouble.”
Henry, the 15-year-old Lakeside sophomore, says the program even has more simple benefits. “(Drugs) messes your brain up and you can’t think well and get a good education,” she said. “This has changed lives.”
, DataTimes