ALEXANDRIA — A proposal under consideration in Campbell County Schools calls for students who participate in extracurricular activities to undergo random drug tests.

        The Random Drug Testing Policy Committee was convened after the board of education heard about similar programs in other school districts in the state. Members include Superintendent Roger Brady, a board of education member, parents, and middle and high school officials.

        “There is not one particular isolated incident or example of anything that happened in the school district that prompted this to come into play,” said spokesman Chris Gramke. Rather, “this all stems from Campbell County Schools and the board of education wanting to be proactive in helping students. “I think it's just an overall societal problem, and we think this might help and have an impact with our kids.”

        The National School Boards Association does not keep statistics on districts with drug-testing policies, but about two dozen public school districts in Kentucky have mandatory or voluntary drug testing. They include the Dayton, Erlanger-Elsmere, Grant County and Pendleton County districts in Northern Kentucky. In Ohio, Mason City Schools has had a voluntary random drug-testing program since 1997 for high school students.

        Ed Meenach, second vice president of the Campbell County High School Band Parent Association, said he doesn't see why students in extracurricular activities would be “singled out” for drug testing.

        “I have a huge problem with that,” Mr. Meenach said. His daughter, a senior at the high school, is involved in the band and drama club. “You cannot just select one group of kids (to be tested), you have to do them all.”

        The plan being considered in Campbell County Schools would not affect students in the Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Thomas and Newport independent school districts.

        On Monday, a New Jersey appeals court ruled that high school students who are involved in teams and clubs or who seek school parking permits can be randomly tested for drugs. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued on behalf of three high school students in 2000, plans to appeal. Drug tests had been allowed previously for student athletes. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public high school students who participate in extracurricular programs could be tested for drugs.

        The drug-testing policies in Kentucky schools, nearly all of which are related to extracurricular activities, were put in place over the past six years.

        “The primary reason is if (school districts) have an identified drug or alcohol abuse problem,” said Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association. “Sometimes a single incident may bring this type of policy to a head.”

        Scott Greenwood, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said districts must first prove that a drug problem exists, and that drug testing for students in extracurricular activities would address the problem. The problem with many well-intentioned drug-testing programs in school districts, he said, is that they lack “serious focus” and strip students of their “sense of personal integrity.”

        Officials in Dayton Independent Schools, which has been randomly testing athletes and cheerleaders for drugs since the early 1990s, said their policy has made a difference.

        “It's been great. The last two years I have not had a student who tested positive for drugs,” said Greg Baxter, director of pupil personnel. “Prior to that, my first year as director of pupil personnel, I had three students and the next year I had one student (who tested positive for drugs).”

        There is a drug problem in Campbell County, police said.

        “We are not saying that drugs run rampant at the school,” said Lt. David Fickenscher of the Campbell County Police Department. “The school out here is not any different from any other school. They're simply willing to address a unique drug abuse problem among the students that is not necessarily occurring in the school.”

        He said police see heroin being used mostly among 14- to 25-year-olds.

        “When you start seeing 14-year-old kids checking in for treatment,” he said, “it kind of raises your eyebrows a little bit.”

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