Drug
testing may expand
Middle school wants to start
program. Some Hackettstown High students call it a good
deterrent.
Tuesday, January 24, 206 • By LYNN OLANOFF •
The Express-Times
HACKETTSTOWN | Drugs are not used by most
middle students in the district -- and school officials
think a voluntary random drug-testing program could keep it
that way.
The proposed program was the topic of a
public forum Monday that drew 20 parents and as many
questions.
"They're big when they go to high school,
but here, they're still little," said Roxanne Trucksess, who
has a child in sixth grade and one in ninth grade, who is
enrolled in the high school's drug-testing
program.
"I'm not going to argue the statistics,
but that's what's in our minds."
Statistics show middle school students
are using drugs, school officials said Monday. Hackettstown
High School students -- who spoke favorably of the
drug-testing programs they're enrolled in -- said
Hackettstown Middle School students are no
different.
"A lot of people that are using drugs
today at the high school started at the middle school,"
senior Tom Malejko said.
The public forum -- which is one in a
series of three -- is an early step in the district's
consideration of a voluntary random drug-testing program for
seventh- and eighth-grade students. Fifth- and sixth-grade
students also attend the middle school, but they would not
likely be included in the program, Principal Michael Meyer
said.
"As much as we don't like to think about
it, all of our kids face these decisions," Meyer said. "We
want to be pro-active, we want to give students another way
to say 'no.'"
Both parents and students would have to
consent to be part of the middle school's drug-testing pool,
he said. This is different from the district's high school
program, where in addition to voluntary sign-up, any student
involved in a sport, activity or who parks a car on campus
is in the testing pool.
The high school program has been in place
for 1 ½ years and has been a deterrent for drug use,
officials and students said. Only one student has tested
positive in that time.
If approved, the middle school
drug-testing program would be the second of its kind in New
Jersey, officials said. Pequannock Valley Middle School, in
Morris County, became the first in the state to implement a
middle school drug-testing program in September and
officials there feel it has been successful, Pequannock
officials said Monday.
Being opposed to drug use "becomes part
of the culture," Principal William Trusheim said at the
meeting. The school has tested between 25 and 30 students so
far, with no positive results. Of the school's 612 students,
225 are in the volunteer program.
Students are embracing the program so
much that some eighth-grade students created white plastic
bracelets that say, "Pequannock random drug testing, 100
percent clean" to promote the cause, Trusheim
said.
Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by
e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com.
© 2006 The Express-Times. Used with
permission.
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