Pubdate: Fri, 21 Feb 2014
Source: Pocono Record, The (Stroudsburg, PA)
Copyright: 2014 Pocono Mountains Media Group
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/PEKmDRjJ
Website: http://www.poconorecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4529
Author: Beth Brelje
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

DELAWARE VALLEY BOARD REINSTATES DRUG TESTING POLICY

Judge's January Ruling Paves Way for School District to Bring Back the Practice

The Delaware Valley School board voted this week to reinstate its 
controversial drug testing policy effective immediately, and to 
double the number of students being tested monthly.

Students in grades 6-12 will be tested.

The policy was challenged in the Pike County Court of Common Pleas 
and banned in July 2011 through a temporary injunction after a family 
represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania objected to the policy, 
calling it a violation of students' civil rights.

Random, suspicionless drug testing has been the district's policy 
since 1996 and it has been challenged twice in court.

The policy requires all students who drive to school or participate 
in any co-curricular activities to submit to a urine test.

Previously the test was administered to each student once when they 
joined an activity and then once a month, 5 percent of students in 
the pool marked for testing were randomly tested.

The board voted to end the initial testing at the beginning of the 
year or season and increasing monthly random testing to 10 percent of 
the students in the testing pool. The board also added Oxycontin to 
the list of drugs to be screened in urine tests.

Random, suspicionless drug testing of the entire school population 
would be unconstitutional, but the district identified two large 
groups of students, those who participate in activities and those who 
drive to school.

In the court case, the district had to prove that the students in 
those groups are more likely to use drugs to justify the testing.

Pike County Judge Joseph Kameen ruled that the school made its case 
and in January ruled that the testing policy could be reinstated.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom