Parents divided on Beaufort County athletic drug testing policy
A new policy calling for random drug-testing of Beaufort County student athletes in the fall has gotten a chilly reception from parents who think it unfairly targets their children.
Beaufort County School District officials say they're prohibited from giving random drug tests to the general student body, teachers or staff, though there are laws that allow them to test students with school privileges, such as athletic and extracurricular participation and campus parking permits.
That answer doesn't sit well with some parents, who said recently that monitoring drug use should be within their purview alone.
"That's something that needs to 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 says Daniels has earned the right to participate in sports by keeping his grades up and by his behavior.
"I think they're targeting the wrong group of kids," she said of the policy, which could make student athletes ineligible for up to one year. "And they're just going to give the kids who are doing drugs 365 more days to do more drugs."
The district will begin the new policy by drug testing at least 38 students at each high school each month, and phasing in two other groups -- extracurricular participants and parking permit holders -- in 2016 and 2017.
While many people noted student athletes are considered role models to their peers, several parents questioned why the district would implement such a plan if it cannot apply it to athletes' role models.
"If we're going to hold students accountable, then that means teachers, staff, administrators should also keep their nose clean and accountable," said Sharron Williams, whose son, Marlon, just graduated from Whale Branch Early College High School with a basketball scholarship.
Williams says her three younger boys, all athletes, likely wouldn't care if they were drug tested, though she would prefer the decision be left up to her.
"I try to keep them out of that type of environment, so (required testing) would be sort of an infringement on me," Williams said.
Overall, support for the new policy, announced last week, has been split.
In an Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette survey of about 620 people, 55 percent said they opposed the district's plan. About 41 percent were in favor.
To some, like Susan Cleveland of Bluffton, the extra measure makes perfect sense.
Cleveland, a retired teacher with 39 years of experience in Beaufort and Jasper counties, says drug use is rampant in many schools. Students swig vodka from water bottles, smoke marijuana in the bathrooms between class, and have been known to toss drugs out the windows of their athletic buses to avoid getting caught.
One of her relatives was disciplined after he was caught selling marijuana in a Beaufort County school, she said.
"I'm liberal. I don't care if you smoke weed," Cleveland said. "I do care if you are 18 and smoking weed and going to class and not being able to participate because you're so zoned out."
Cleveland said middle schools are hardly better.
She recalls the day a drug-sniffing dog came up the stairs of Hardeeville-Ridgeland Middle School and scared one of her favorite students, who pulled a baggie of marijuana out of his pocket and tossed it into Cleveland's purse, hoping nobody would notice.
She did.
Today, Cleveland questions parents who don't want their children tested.
"You don't want to know the truth?" she asked. "Sometimes the truth hurts, but there's help when you're hurt."
The S.C. Department of Education could not say last week how many districts have drug policies, though Beaufort County is not alone.
Several people noted that high schools in other areas of the country have drug tested student athletes for years. At least two South Carolina school districts, both in Lexington County, have similar policies.
Lexington County School District Two has been drug-testing athletes since 2000.
Though it could not provide historical information, the district said it had tested 60 high-school athletes each year for the past few years, at a cost of $30 per test.
The process does not net many offenders these days. Only one student tested positive this year, according to district student services director Jim Hinton.
Still, another Lexington district, Lexington One, just passed a similar policy to begin testing a quarter of its athletes and extracurricular participants -- about 1,000 people -- in the fall. The plan will cost of about $30,000 per year, according to Lexington One spokesperson Mary Beth Hill.
"While the misuse of drugs is a potential problem for all students, unique pressures and risks exist for students participating in athletics," the district wrote in a May news release.
Jerome Singleton, commissioner of the S.C. High School League, said he was not aware of any other district policies, but supported Beaufort County's.
"If a student athlete is competing while impaired through alcohol or illegal drugs, that can't be a good situation for themselves, especially when you look at contact sports or sports that require their alertness to protect themselves," Singleton said. "I applaud this."
Follow reporter Rebecca Lurye on Twitter at twitter.com/IPBG_Rebecca.
Related content:
This story was originally published June 21, 2015 at 6:36 PM with the headline "Parents divided on Beaufort County athletic drug testing policy."