Over the last two weeks Drug Policy Alliance staff, members and allies have reached out to educators at the Bush Administration’s student drug testing summits in Albuquerque, NM, Oklahoma City, OK and Jacksonville, FL, to let them know that random student drug testing programs erode relationships of trust at school, deter students from extracurricular activities and otherwise interfere with positive protective factors in school.

Yesterday in New Mexico, DPA staff and allies distributed copies of Making Sense of Student Drug Testing to attendees as they went into the auditorium. 

“We already have effective programs in New Mexico and we should focus on expanding those, rather than pursuing something with no basis in research,” said Reena Szczepanski, Director of Drug Policy Alliance New Mexico. 

The week before the New Mexico summit, DPA members and allies at the ACLU of Florida attended the Jacksonville summit in force, taking every opportunity to engage educators before the summit and during the breaks between speakers. Educators also sought them out, eager to hear the other side of the story.

One of the summit’s presenters made a memorable--and alarming--comment. Christina Steffner, principal of Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey and frequent presenter at the summits, told educators, “Fear in the mind of teenagers is a beautiful thing!”

Melanie Petrandis, a former intern with DPA’s Office of National Affairs, reacted to the events in a post on The D’Alliance, DPA’s blog. 

The summits also generated significant media attention. The Florida Times Union and Folio Weekly reported on the opposition by DPA and the ACLU to student drug testing.

The Oklahoma City summit, which took place the same week, was covered by the University of Oklahoma newspaper, The Daily, with an article that extensively quoted DPA staff and a local parent who opposes random student drug testing in her school district. 

DPA’s work also generated media interest in other parts of the country.  Jennifer Kern, Coordinator of DPA’s Drug Testing Fails Our Youth Campaign debated a representative of the drug testing industry on NPR Affiliate KNOR in Las Vegas, Nevada. She also did a segment on student drug testing on WQSC 1340 in Charleston, South Carolina, along with supporter Skip Johnson, who distributed information at a summit last year.

The final announced summit of 2008 will take place on February 19, in Indianapolis, Indiana.