SOUTH BEND — Several local schools randomly test students or athletes for everything from nicotine to performance enhancing drugs. Most schools test a few hundred students every year, but each test carries a price tag starting at $50.

Those tests can add up to thousands of dollars. That cost has stopped some schools from administering the tests.

Drug tests are performed at some local high schools, and most parents and students say it's worth every penny.

On and off the basketball court, making the right decision under pressure can be hard.

"That is what I was taught. Don't do drugs," said Mercedes Dues, a Memorial High School basketball player.

Some parents passed that message to their teenagers.

"I think I know what my child is doing, but you are never 100 percent sure," said Leslie Snyder, a parent.

School districts, like Plymouth, Goshen, Wa-nee and Elkhart, are taking control by administering drug tests.

"It's just a reassurance, and it sends a clear message to the students," said Snyder.

It has driven many high school basketball players to do the right thing.

"If you are going to get drug tested randomly, you aren't going to do anything that makes you do drugs," said Dues.

But Dues isn't sure how random those tests are.

"They test the same people all the time. I was drug tested three times last year and four times the year before that," she said.

Plymouth tested 174 students this year. Only two tested positive for nicotine and marijuana.

It's the cost of $50 per test that has detoured some school corporations, like South Bend.

Some parents say it's not worth the cost because students know how to manipulate the test results.

Others disagree.

"A school should be a safe place for kids, and if that's one way to do it then the expense is worth it," said Phil Lechlitner, a Northwood High School parent and teacher.

When decision time is running out, some players say it's easier to make the right one.

"If you are doing drugs, there should be consequences for it," said Jada Buggs, a Memorial High School basketball player.

Plymouth will continue with its random testing at the high school because they say it is a good deterrent.

It isn't pinching Plymouth's budget because a drug task force grant pays for its tests.