School superintendent wants schools to take on parental responsibilities
Spurred by son's addiction, educator pushes drug testing
By Kathleen Burge, Globe Staff | January 18, 2005
SALEM -- There were hints of trouble, but the father missed them. His affectionate son had transformed into an angry, door-slamming menace. The boy's childhood friends were replaced by a rougher crowd. Police warned that the new friends were dangerous.
For more than a year, the father lived in ignorance. Salem's school superintendent, Herbert Levine -- guardian of 5,000 students, holder of a doctorate in education, overseer of students for 36 years -- overlooked the powerful drug addiction of the teenager living in his own house.
"I didn't know that my kid was in trouble," Levine said Thursday, still sounding surprised seven months after he discovered his son, Joel, could not get through most days without inhaling the prescription painkiller OxyContin.
Now the father who feared he might lose his son is crusading to save other daughters and sons on the North Shore, where dozens of people die each year of OxyContin and heroin overdoses. Levine has suggested that Salem schools start randomly testing students for drug use.
The proposal has ignited a firestorm in the city, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has threatened to sue if Levine's idea takes flight. In classrooms and in school hallways, students are debating the merits of drug testing.
"I don't see the point of it," said Christina Davies, a Salem High School freshman. "Just because the superintendent's son did drugs, everyone in the school shouldn't be [required] to take a drug test."
Other students were less alarmed at the possibility that they would have to submit urine samples for testing. "I have no problem with it," said freshman James Burnes.
Denise Royal, the mother of a Salem High student, said drug testing could be comforting to parents. "I'd rather know than not know," she said.
