Pubdate: Thu, 10 Mar 2005
Source: Burlington Times-News (NC)
Copyright: 2005 The Times-News Publishing Company
Contact: http://www.thetimesnews.com/letter_to_editor/splash.php
Website: http://www.thetimesnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1822
Author:  Mike Wilder
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

ALCOHOL NIXED FROM DRUG POLICY

A proposed drug testing policy for students in the Alamance-Burlington 
School System no longer includes alcohol. Brad Evans, an assistant 
superintendent, told school board members Wednesday afternoon that testing 
for alcohol has been deleted from the proposed policy.

Evans said drug testing companies and school systems that already do drug 
testing don't include alcohol in their tests. The policy, if approved by 
the school board, would require high school students who participate in 
extracurricular activities to submit to random drug testing.

Students who don't participate in those activities would not be affected. 
The proposed policy says students would be tested for substances including 
cocaine, opiates, marijuana, amphetamines, methamphetamines, barbiturates, 
PCP, LSD or other hallucinogenic compounds. The school board could vote on 
the policy as early as its next meeting, scheduled for March 21. Students 
who used drugs would be subject to a three-month suspension from activities 
for a first offense.

The second offense would mean suspension for a year, and the third offense 
would mean the student was banned for the rest of high school. Board 
members offered little comment during a Wednesday afternoon meeting on 
deleting alcohol from the policy. They did, however, discuss com-munity 
reaction to the proposed policy. "It's a little hard to decipher what the 
thinking is right now," Superintendent Jim Merrill said. He said he's heard 
support and opposition to the policy, along with the opinion that students 
should only be tested if teachers and staff are tested as well. Merrill 
said the students he has talked to support the policy. "They said, 'Bring 
it on,'" he said. Tom Manning, the school board's chairman, has said he 
would be interested in preemployment drug testing for teachers if the 
system felt it were on solid legal ground in requiring the tests. Ann 
Majestic, the school board's attorney, said earlier this month she isn't 
satisfied that there is sufficient legal precedent for that kind of testing.

Whereas businesses can require the tests, she said, governing bodies would 
have to comply with the Fourth Amendment, which forbids "unreasonable 
searches." The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld drug testing for students who 
participate in sports and other activities. Manning said people who work 
with children are in safety-sensitive positions and should be subject to 
testing.

He also said he had heard the city of Burlington does drug testing. Aaron 
Noble, the city's human resources director, confirmed Wednesday afternoon 
the city requires preemployment drug testing for all full-time or permanent 
part-time positions, regardless of the nature of the job. Those employees 
face only suspicion-based drug testing once on the job, he said. School 
board member Mary Alice Hinshaw said she doesn't want the discussion of 
potential testing of teachers to distract from pursuing the policy that 
would affect students. Manning said he agreed, but wants to keep exploring 
whether and how other school systems or governing bodies require drug 
testing for employees. School board member Steve Van Pelt said the board 
may want to explore the feasibility of testing for steroids in relation to 
high school athletes. But he said he would not want that to distract from 
the proposed policy.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom