Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2012
Source: Arkansas Times (Little Rock, AR)
Copyright: 2012 Arkansas Times Inc.
Contact:  http://www.arktimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/583

DRUG TEST POLICIES IN STATE'S 10 LARGEST SCHOOL DISTRICTS

Many Arkansas districts randomly drug test middle and high school 
students who participate in sports or other extracurricular 
activities. The reasoning behind these tests, according to school 
handbooks, is twofold - mixing drugs and physical activity endangers 
the health of students, and students who wear school jerseys are 
ambassadors, representing the school rather than themselves. A 
positive test typically means suspension from athletics or other 
extracurricular activities.

In 2002, UALR journalism professor Bruce Plopper and three other 
families sued the Conway School District for drug testing or 
threatening to test their middle school students. According to 
Plopper, both the U.S. and Arkansas Constitutions have clauses that 
protect against this testing. Before the case made it to court, 
Conway suspended its testing program, and in 2007 the district 
officially dropped the policy. "This was an unwarranted invasion of 
privacy," Plopper said. "They were testing students who hadn't done 
anything wrong, students with high grades."

According to Rita Sklar, executive director of ACLU of Arkansas, 
public school students are one of the most susceptible demographics 
to institutionalized bullying. "What student doesn't play sports or 
do something extracurricular? Students shouldn't have to submit 
bodily fluids just because they go to a public school," she said. In 
a multiyear, national study, the University of Michigan found nearly 
identical levels of drug use in schools that test and schools that don't.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom