Pot times July 17, 2005
Parents Will Play Key Role In Testing Plan
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1126/a08.htmlNewshawk: Herb
Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 PARENTS WILL PLAY KEY ROLE IN TESTING PLAN
Source: New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Herald-Zeitung
Contact:
news@herald-zeitung.com
Website: http://www.herald-zeitung.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3053
Author: Melissa Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm
(Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm
(Youth)
Many parents are now aware that the New Braunfels Independent School District
will be implementing a random drug-testing policy this school year.
But what parents may not know is how the policy works, what rights they have to
appeal a positive test result and who's going to foot the bill.
Parents and students 18 years or older will be required to sign a consent form
before they will be eligible to participate in competitive extracurricular
activities or receive a parking permit.
The forms and information about the drug policy will be distributed to seventh
and eighth-grade students Aug. 5 and high school students July 27 and 28
as part of school registration.
Assistant Superintendent Janet Patton said students who want to register for
courses that fall under the competitive extracurricular activity category must
sign and return a consent form before they will be allowed to enroll in the
class.
Parent orientation sessions will be held to explain the policy and review
consent forms before the policy goes into effect. Patton said the times,
dates and locations of the meetings have not been determined.
The percentage of the student body and the number of testing times each year
will depend on the number of participants and the NBISD Board of Trustees' year
to year preferences. Students entered into the pool will be chosen for
testing by computer-generated random selection based on a district provided list
of all identified participants. The district has selected independent
laboratory Pinnacle Medical Management to administer the tests and select the
dates.
Students who will be entered into the drug testing pool include students in
grade seven through 12 who participate in competitive extracurricular
activities, park on campus or who voluntarily enroll in the programs.
"The neat part about voluntary enrollment is that the district is not
notified of the results, and it is performed at no cost to the parent,"
Patton said. "The medical review officer reports the results directly
to parent because this about the safety of the child and being proactive."
Patton said students who were randomly selected for drug testing should not
worry that their names would be announced over the intercom. A list of
selected names will be given to administrators and students will be notified of
their selection by a school official who will walk to the studentA's classroom
and escort them to the on-campus testing area.
Testing will be performed by urinalysis and monitored by an official of the same
sex. Students will provide the urine sample in a closed stall and will not
be directly observed while providing the sample. The specimen will be
split into "AA" and "BA" samples in the event that a parent
retest is requested. A preliminary positive result will be confirmed by a
second test of the same specimen.
The district can test for amphetamines, anabolic steroids, barbiturates,
cocaine, LSD, marijuana, methadone, opiates and phencyclidine but will not test
for alcohol. The eight-panel test will not include anabolic steroids
except on a random basis. However, students will not be singled out for
the steroid test on the basis of their involvement in sports or other
activities.
"It's completely random," Patton said. "If they say that
they want every 10th test to be a steroid test then they could go down the list
of student id numbers, pick one, and that student could be a debater."
Patton said that the high cost of the steroid test made it impractical to
administer to every student. The regular eight panel test costs $28 a
student, while the steroid test costs an additional $180 per student. The
district has set aside $50,000 from its annual budget to fund the testing.
Alcohol was removed from the testing policy after the first reading of the
draft. Pinnacle President and CEO Dr. Harvey Graves explained that
the rate at which the body metabolizes alcohol makes testing for the substance
impractical.
"Alcohol metabolism in a matter of hours and unless the student drank right
before school or at school there would not be a detectable amount," Graves
said. "It takes the body one hour to metabolize each drink, so even
if the student was drinking Sunday night it would not show up on Monday
morning."
If a student tests positive for any of the nine prohibited substances, the
parent will be notified. Before officially reporting the result of the
test as positive, a Medical Review Officer will discuss the test results with
the parent to determine if there is a medical explanation for the positive
result, such as prescription medication. If the medical explanation can be
verified, for example by contacting a pharmacy or general practitioner, then the
test result will be reported negative.
Students without a medical explanation for a positive test may still appeal for
a retest if they believe the results are incorrect. A request for a retest
must be made to the designated school official in writing within 48 hours from
the time the parent was first notified of a positive test result. A second
test from the "BA" bottle of the specimen will be sent for retesting
at the parent's expense.
Consequences for positive test results include suspension from extracurricular
competition and parking, substance abuse counseling at the parent's expense.
Students must have a negative follow-up test before the student will regain
competition and parking privileges. The district will provide a list of
certified counseling alternatives on a sliding scale.
A student's first positive drug test will suspended him from competition and
parking for 15 days and require three hours of counseling and a negative
follow-up result.
A student's second positive test will lead to a 30-day suspension with six hours
of counseling and a negative follow-up; the third will mandate a one-year
suspension, 24 hours of counseling and a negative follow-up.
Students who test positive a fourth time will be permanently suspended from
participating in all competitive extracurricular activities and campus parking
for the duration of his or her attendance in NBISD.
Though the draft requires students be suspended from competition for their first
three offenses, it allows the students to participate in extracurricular
practices.
In response to accusations that the district was being soft on suspensions and
wasting district money on the program, Patton said that the policy was not
designed to be punitive.
"The biggest obstacle of this policy has been to communicate to people that
because someone's test shows to be positive, it's treated under this policy not
the Student Code of Conduct. They are not considered under the influence
because this is a non-punitive intervention.
"The student code of conduct addresses drug use on campus or at school
functions. This policy is more about deterring students from the
temptation of using drugs in a society where the pressures are mounting and can
be overwhelming. We want to educate the students and parents of harmful
effects of drug use and intervene prior to any damaging or irreversible
effects," Patton said.
