THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 17, 1995 TAG: 9502170506
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
When he was a Navy officer, Virginia Beach Del. Frank W. Wagner said, random drug testing ``cleaned up'' sailors' use of illegal drugs.
But the Republican lawmaker's attempt to create a similar drug-prevention program in the state's public schools was shot down Thursday by a Senate committee.
Wagner, who called illegal drug and alcohol use the ``biggest problem we have in our schools today,'' failed to persuade opponents that a law allowing random drug testing of students was needed.
Representatives of Virginia's school superintendents and school boards opposed Wagner's bill, HB2421, raising constitutional concerns and saying it would create an adversarial system that pitted children against their parents and the schools.
Wagner wanted to make parents responsible for deciding whether to have their children tested.
Sen. Frank W. Nolen, D-New Hope, moved to kill the bill, saying such a program would be ``burdensome and really not necessary.''
Wagner had found support for his idea in the House, which voted 84-13 last week to approve the measure. But the Senate Education and Health Committee voted Thursday to ``pass by'' the bill, effectively killing it for this session, Nolen said.
The bill would have required the state Board of Education to develop regulations authorizing local schools to set up drug-testing programs.
Wagner, citing figures indicating that drug use among teenagers is on the rise, pitched the idea as voluntary.
Neither school boards nor parents would be required to participate, he said, and parents would be billed for the testing, he said.
``A preventive measure like this will go a long way towards keeping our kids off drugs,'' Wagner told the panel. ``If they're in this program, they have an airtight reason to say `no' to drugs.''
State Schools Superintendent William C. Bosher Jr., responding to a question, said he believed school boards already have the authority - even without enabling legislation as Wagner proposed - to create in-school drug-testing programs.
In other action, the Allen administration, which has watched the General Assembly dismember its body of educational reforms this session, was treated to mixed results by the panel Thursday.
Two bills backed by Gov. George F. Allen were passed by the panel and appear certain to become law.
One, HB2419, sponsored by Wagner, would allow school boards to establish single-sex classes for boys and girls. The other, HB2032, sponsored by Del. Robert Tata, R-Virginia Beach, would allow localities to require that students wear uniforms.
The committee also passed an identical uniform bill sponsored by Democrat Alan Diamonstein of Newport News.
But the panel killed several Allen-supported bills, including HB2465, which would have required schools to notify parents if they planned to survey students on ``personal'' matters, including questions dealing with sex, religion, politics or family income.
Another measure - HB2031 - would have required school districts statewide to fingerprint and run criminal background checks on all new teachers and other employees.
More than 20 of the state's 136 school districts have sought and been granted permission by the General Assembly to fingerprint new employees.
Bosher said Virginia had become a ``safe haven'' for child molesters and other felons to apply for teaching jobs because it was one of the few states on East Coast without consistent background checks.
But Lilla Wise, a spokeswoman for Arlington's public schools, said fingerprinting employees creates a sense of false security and that a good reference or application check would go further to identify undesirable candidates. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Republican Del. Frank W. Wagner says tests ``cleaned up'' sailors'
use of illegal drugs.
KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY by CNB