Pubdate: Mon, 13 Jan 2014
Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
Copyright: 2014 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Deena Yellin

NORTHERN VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL PARENTS AWAIT DOCUMENTS LINKED TO RANDOM
DRUG-TESTING PROPOSAL

Northern Valley Regional High School parents will be able to see 14
documents the district had labeled privileged as well as the personal
emails of board members regarding a proposed random drug testing policy.

A Superior Court judge ruled last week that the district improperly
withheld numerous documents and awarded the parents who had brought
the lawsuit $7,500 in legal fees. The district parents had requested
the documents under the state Open Public Records Act in June and then
sued, claiming the district had not fully complied.

Judge Peter Doyne wrote in his decision that, "These documents should
have been provided to plaintiff earlier, and their retention by
defendant violated the provisions of OPRA."

The judge also determined that school board members should not be able
to evade OPRA requirements by using personal e-mails to conduct the
public's business.

Board member John Schettino said the documents comprise e-mails
between the superintendent and board members that should have been
turned over, but added "The judge's decision showed that the ORPA
request was substantially complied with. Otherwise, the judge would
not have reduced their request for legal fees" from $32,000 to $7,500.

Bruce Rosen, the attorney representing the parents, said they still
await receipt of the documents.

The Record also has requested copies of the documents.

The parents made the request after a presentation by the district to
parents about the potential implementation of a random drug policy at
the high school campuses in Demarest and Old Tappan. The policy would
require all students involved in clubs and extra-curricular activities
as well as those with parking permits to be tested on a random basis.
The policy is not intended to be punitive but to get help to those who
need it, said officials. The board plans to vote on the policy later
this month, having held a mandatory public airing of it last Thursday.

District officials have said that there is a drug problem in the
district that would warrant such a program. Parents and students who
oppose the random program say studies have shown it to be ineffective
in curbing drug use, and to infringe on students' privacy. Many have
asked the district to implement a wide range of educational anti-drug
programs instead of testing. The district says it would indeed add
such programs to complement testing.

Annie Hausmann, acting on behalf of the opposing parents, first
submitted the request for documents in June. The group filed a
complaint and request for an order to show cause in September after
the district failed to cooperate with their request.

The district argued in court that the documents that weren't handed
over were confidential. The court reviewed the documents to determine
whether it was warranted for the district to withhold them based on
confidentiality.

The parents said they were shocked and disappointed that the district
"delayed production of the documents, then they broke their agreement
not to take any action on RDT until all the information we sought had
been produced, and then ... they withheld certain documents asserting
privilege," said Jodi Brenner, one of the parents involved.

Rosen said that all his clients ever sought were documents that would
support the district's claim about the need for random drug testing in
the high school. "Instead," he said, "they were forced to file an OPRA
request, and then, receiving little of what board members claimed to
exist, had no choice but to file a lawsuit that no one wanted to file..."

The first round of OPRA documents came out in the summer and the
second round came in November, Rosen said. The district had claimed
those documents would support random drug testing but careful
examination revealed that they did not back the program, he said. As
for the latest batch of documents, he said, "We have no idea what is
in them."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D