School board tables drug testing

By Carolyn Cole
Published on July 26, 2008

Mustang School Board members tabled a proposed drug testing policy that would have gone into effect Friday and affected high school students participating in activities and parking on campus.

Athletic Director Mike Clark asked board members to wait on the policy because he didn’t feel there was time to fully implement a drug testing program in the same week many athletic teams begin practice.

“I think we are going to have to sit down with principals and go over the policy with them, make sure we have the right guidelines,” he said. “I don’t want to implement something and everyone not be sure exactly what the policy is and how we are going to track it.”

Last month when the proposed policy was presented to board members, Clark told them he supported it, partly because of his experience with a former student in another district who developed a drug addiction.

“It breaks my heart,” he said last month. “It makes me look back on what more could I have done ... if you save one life from this, the program is worthwhile.”

Clark told school board members he still supports drug testing and believes the proposed policy is adoptable, but he wanted to meet with coaches and administrators to discuss details.

“I’d like everybody to have a good knowledge of where we are going and what the expectations are and the cost of it,” he said.

School Board President Jeff Johnson asked if the policy could be adopted in the middle of the school year, and Clark said he wanted to meet as a committee and bring a timeline back to the board.

“I’d like to get some more heads involved in it,” he said.

School officials had pushed for drug testing as a deterrent — to give youth another reason to stay clear of drugs.

“I think eventually all schools across the nation will have some type of drug testing policy,” Interim Superintendent Bonnie Lightfoot said. “I think we would not be telling ourselves the truth if we thought that kids today don’t experience some of the problems kids have forever. We want to have kids recognize they have a choice.”

Mustang’s proposed policy was modeled after a drug testing plan used in the Tecumseh School District, which withstood U.S. Supreme Court scrutiny. If it was approved, starting this school year, Mustang Mid-High and Mustang High School students who wanted to participate in any competitive activities would have been required to submit to random drug testing. Students who wanted a parking permit would also have been placed in the drug testing pool. Only MHS juniors and seniors are allowed to drive to school.

Starting in 2009, if the policy was approved, seventh- and eighth-grade students wanting to participate in competitive activities would also have been included in drug testing.

Former Superintendent Karl Springer had said officials wanted to test between a quarter and one-fifth of all students in the drug testing program each year, but Clark said that is one of the details school officials need to consider, as well as the cost.

Yukon School District adopted a similar policy affecting youth participating in competitive activities four years ago. In Yukon, school officials report they test between 7 percent and 10 percent of students involved in competitions at random each month. Each test costs Yukon School District $16, or about $15,000 spent on the drug testing contract.

If Mustang’s policy was approved, a drug testing company would have been hired, and officials would have provided company workers with a list of youth participating in the program. A database would have been used to select youth at random, and school officials would have been provided the list of youth on the day tests were to be conducted.

If a student refused, it would have been treated as an offense.

On a first offense, the youth and parents would have been required to show proof the student is receiving counseling from a qualified drug treatment program within five days of the meeting to continue participating in activities or parking on campus.

On a second offense, the student would be have been suspended from activities or parking on campus for at least two weeks and required to complete four hours of substance abuse education and counseling provided by the school. The student would have been tested monthly at their expense for the remainder of the school year.

On a third offense, the student would be have been suspended from parking on campus or participating in activities for 18 weeks, the length of a semester.

Under the policy, drug test results would not have impacted a student’s academic file and would not have been “voluntarily turned over to any law enforcement agency.”

At no time would a youth have faced school suspension. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled students have a right to an education, but participating in competitive activities to represent their school is a privilege.

With random drug testing, justices ruled school officials can deny privileges but cannot bar a child from receiving an education.

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