High school student drug testing to begin
Drug testing 101
Question: Why is the school district drug testing students?
Answer: District leaders hope to identify students who are struggling with substance abuse and get them help through counseling programs. No specific instance triggered the new testing requirement, they say.
Q: Which students will be tested?
A: A random sampling of high school athletes will be tested throughout the new school year. A random sampling of students participating in extracurricular activities will be tested starting next school year, and a sampling of student drivers will be added in the '17-'18 school year. But district leaders may speed up the three-year timeline.
Q: What if I do NOT want my student tested?
A: A parent can opt out by not signing the consent form or withdrawing a signed form. But once that is done, the student cannot participate in athletics or other extracurricular activities or drive to school in future years.
Q: What if I want my student tested?
A: Parents who want their students tested, even if the students are not participating in athletics or extracurriculars, can fill out a consent form (available on the district's website) and turn it in to the district.
Q: Why doesn't the district test teachers and administrators, too?
A: Law only allows testing for employees if there is reasonable suspicion of drug use. But the school board has discussed requesting coaches to voluntarily submit to testing.
Q: What happens if a student gets a positive result on a drug test?
A: For a first positive test, a student will be banned from extracurricular activities and parking on campus for 365 days. But a student can get a reprieve by receiving an assessment by a licensed substance-abuse professional and completing at least one treatment session within 10 days of the positive test. The student would then have to pass another drug test within 30 to 90 days after the first failed test.
For a second failed test, a student could regain eligibility by completing a substance-abuse program and passing another drug test.
A student would be ineligible for extracurricular activities and parking for 365 days for a third failed test and would have to complete a substance-abuse program and pass another drug test to be eligible the next year.
Drugs the tests are looking for
- Alcohol
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Phencyclidine (PCP)
- Amphetamines/methamphetamine
- Opiates (OcyContin, Vicodin)
- Barbiturates
- Benzodiazepines (Valium)
- Methadone
- Adulterants used to prevent drug detection
- Propoxyphene (Darvon)
Students may be tested for other drugs that are illegal for minors at the recommendation of a test administrator and with approval from the school district superintendent.
Source: Beaufort County School DistrictEvery student athlete in the Beaufort County School District could be drug tested this school year -- far more than the district had anticipated just two months ago.
A total of 2,700 tests -- about 1,000 more tests than originally anticipated in June -- will be randomly administered to the estimated 2,500 students competing in high school level sports over the course of the school year.
Only student athletes -- including middle school students who play on high school teams -- will be tested this first year. The program will expand to include students participating in extracurricular activities beginning in August 2016 and students who park on campus starting in August 2017.
A district decision to rebid the contract led to a greater number of tests at a cheaper price.
This program will cost the district roughly $40,000 in the first year, a nearly $10,000 savings from the original estimate, according to district attorney Drew Davis. That cost will grow in the future as the district adds more tests and more students to the pool.
With its new contract, however, the district said it might consider fast-tracking the phase-in and opening it up to both extracurricular participants and drivers next school year.
Several board members say they have gotten pushback from some community members who claim the school board is overstepping its bounds.
"That's something that needs to be handled within a home," said Crystal Everett, whose son, Battery Creek High School wrestler Omar Daniels, won a silver medal in the State Individual Wrestling Tournament this year.
Everett said Daniels has earned the right to participate in sports by keeping his grades up and by good behavior.
School board members, including JoAnn Orischak, have defended the new testing policy, pointing out that many outside activities and jobs now require drug testing.
The point is not to play 'gotcha' with students, said superintendent Jeff Moss.
"The goal is to actually identify how we can put a support structure in place to address students who may be abusing drugs or alcohol," he said.
Testing for the three areas -- athletics, extracurriculars and driving -- is covered legally under U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Moss added. Parents of students in grades seven through 12 not participating in extracurricular activities or parking on campus can also choose to have their children participate in the program at no cost to them.
Two district high schools -- Beaufort High and Hilton Head High -- have publicly grappled with drug issues in the past two years. Students were smoking various oils in e-cigarettes and also abusing Xanax and over-the-counter cough and cold medicines.
But the new drug-testing policy is not in response to those incidents, say district leaders.
Many students support drug testing, said Gregory McCord, the district's head of student services.
"We had student roundtable meetings and, overwhelmingly, this was a topic that students spoke about and said it is something that is needed," he said. "We have to rely on the voice of students since they are the ones seeing these things, so we feel this is a good decision."
While there are more tests than student athletes, that does not mean everyone will be tested. Since students are randomly selected, some could go through the school year without a test while other students could be tested multiple times.
Beaufort County schools have decided to divide the drug tests by the percentage of student athletes at each school.
Battery Creek and Hilton Head high schools both will have 20 percent or 60 drug tests per month; Beaufort High will have 23 percent or 70 tests per month; Bluffton High will have 27 percent or 80 tests per month; and Whale Branch High will have 10 percent or 30 drug tests per month.
About 10 percent of the tests will come back positive, according to the experience of the district's drug-testing company, Absolute Assurance Drug Testing LLC.
Loading...Related content:
- Beaufort County high school athletes to see random drug tests + survey, June 16, 2015
- Parents divided on Beaufort County athletic drug testing policy, June 21, 2015
This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 2:46 PM with the headline "High school student drug testing to begin."