Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2012
Source: St. Joseph News-Press (MO)
Copyright: 2012 The News-Press, St. Joseph, Missouri
Contact:  http://www.newspressnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1510
Author: Alonzo Weston

MARYVILLE SCHOOLS WILL BEGIN DRUG TESTING

MARYVILLE, Mo. - Some students in the Maryville R-II School District
will have to take a new test this coming school year: a drug test.

In May, the board of education approved a drug testing policy drafted
by school administrators that would randomly test students in grades 7
through 12 who take part in extracurricular activities or who park on
school grounds.

Steve Klotz, assistant superintendent, said the measure will affect
most of the 700 middle and high school students in the district.

"Of those 700, we anticipate approximately 80 percent of them will be
part of the tested population, because they participated in regulated
activities," he said.

Parents of those students who don't take part in extracurricular
activities or park on school grounds can voluntarily place them in the
testing pool.

Disciplinary actions will come in a three-tiered system. For the first
positive test, the student will be suspended from extracurricular
activities for 30 days. For a second positive result, there will be a
90-day activity suspension, and for a third positive result, there
will be a year's suspension from all extracurricular activities.

Employee Screening Services, a Springfield, Mo.-based company, will
conduct the testing. There will be two types of testing measures
available: a four panel which costs $14, and a more comprehensive,
12-panel test that comes at a cost of $21.

Mr. Klotz estimates it will cost the district between $5,000 and
$7,000 a year to administer the test.

"Once we have all of our students in the pool, we will determine when
we will be testing our students and the number of students we want to
test. We will do that periodically throughout the school year," he
said.

Mr. Klotz added that about 25 percent of school districts in Missouri
already do random drug screenings.

"In our area, North Platte and Albany are two schools close to us that
are doing random drug testing right now," he said.

The program has majority support in the district. Mr. Klotz said 80
percent of parents said they would support or strongly support the
district having such a policy.

"I think the primary motivation for having the program in place is to
provide another opportunity to support our students' ability to make
positive choices," Mr. Klotz said. "We want to ensure a safe and
healthy environment for all of our students."
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MAP posted-by: Matt