Pubdate: Sun, 17 Jul 2005
Source: New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (TX)
Copyright: 2005 Herald-Zeitung
Contact:  http://www.herald-zeitung.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3053
Author: Melissa Johnson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PARENTS WILL PLAY KEY ROLE IN TESTING PLAN

Many parents are now aware that the New Braunfels Independent School 
District will be implementing a random drug-testing policy this school year.

But what parents may not know is how the policy works, what rights 
they have to appeal a positive test result and who's going to foot the bill.

Parents and students 18 years or older will be required to sign a 
consent form before they will be eligible to participate in 
competitive extracurricular activities or receive a parking permit.

The forms and information about the drug policy will be distributed 
to seventh and eighth-grade students Aug. 5 and high school students 
July 27 and 28 as part of school registration.

Assistant Superintendent Janet Patton said students who want to 
register for courses that fall under the competitive extracurricular 
activity category must sign and return a consent form before they 
will be allowed to enroll in the class.

Parent orientation sessions will be held to explain the policy and 
review consent forms before the policy goes into effect. Patton said 
the times, dates and locations of the meetings have not been determined.

The percentage of the student body and the number of testing times 
each year will depend on the number of participants and the NBISD 
Board of Trustees' year to year preferences. Students entered into 
the pool will be chosen for testing by computer-generated random 
selection based on a district provided list of all identified 
participants. The district has selected independent laboratory 
Pinnacle Medical Management to administer the tests and select the dates.

Students who will be entered into the drug testing pool include 
students in grade seven through 12 who participate in competitive 
extracurricular activities, park on campus or who voluntarily enroll 
in the programs.

"The neat part about voluntary enrollment is that the district is not 
notified of the results, and it is performed at no cost to the 
parent," Patton said. "The medical review officer reports the results 
directly to parent because this about the safety of the child and 
being proactive."

Patton said students who were randomly selected for drug testing 
should not worry that their names would be announced over the 
intercom. A list of selected names will be given to administrators 
and students will be notified of their selection by a school official 
who will walk to the studentA's classroom and escort them to the 
on-campus testing area.

Testing will be performed by urinalysis and monitored by an official 
of the same sex. Students will provide the urine sample in a closed 
stall and will not be directly observed while providing the sample. 
The specimen will be split into "AA" and "BA" samples in the event 
that a parent retest is requested. A preliminary positive result will 
be confirmed by a second test of the same specimen.

The district can test for amphetamines, anabolic steroids, 
barbiturates, cocaine, LSD, marijuana, methadone, opiates and 
phencyclidine but will not test for alcohol. The eight-panel test 
will not include anabolic steroids except on a random basis. However, 
students will not be singled out for the steroid test on the basis of 
their involvement in sports or other activities.

"It's completely random," Patton said. "If they say that they want 
every 10th test to be a steroid test then they could go down the list 
of student id numbers, pick one, and that student could be a debater."

Patton said that the high cost of the steroid test made it 
impractical to administer to every student. The regular eight panel 
test costs $28 a student, while the steroid test costs an additional 
$180 per student. The district has set aside $50,000 from its annual 
budget to fund the testing.

Alcohol was removed from the testing policy after the first reading 
of the draft. Pinnacle President and CEO Dr. Harvey Graves explained 
that the rate at which the body metabolizes alcohol makes testing for 
the substance impractical.

"Alcohol metabolism in a matter of hours and unless the student drank 
right before school or at school there would not be a detectable 
amount," Graves said. "It takes the body one hour to metabolize each 
drink, so even if the student was drinking Sunday night it would not 
show up on Monday morning."

If a student tests positive for any of the nine prohibited 
substances, the parent will be notified. Before officially reporting 
the result of the test as positive, a Medical Review Officer will 
discuss the test results with the parent to determine if there is a 
medical explanation for the positive result, such as prescription 
medication. If the medical explanation can be verified, for example 
by contacting a pharmacy or general practitioner, then the test 
result will be reported negative.

Students without a medical explanation for a positive test may still 
appeal for a retest if they believe the results are incorrect. A 
request for a retest must be made to the designated school official 
in writing within 48 hours from the time the parent was first 
notified of a positive test result. A second test from the "BA" 
bottle of the specimen will be sent for retesting at the parent's expense.

Consequences for positive test results include suspension from 
extracurricular competition and parking, substance abuse counseling 
at the parent's expense. Students must have a negative follow-up test 
before the student will regain competition and parking privileges. 
The district will provide a list of certified counseling alternatives 
on a sliding scale.

A student's first positive drug test will suspended him from 
competition and parking for 15 days and require three hours of 
counseling and a negative follow-up result.

A student's second positive test will lead to a 30-day suspension 
with six hours of counseling and a negative follow-up; the third will 
mandate a one-year suspension, 24 hours of counseling and a negative follow-up.

Students who test positive a fourth time will be permanently 
suspended from participating in all competitive extracurricular 
activities and campus parking for the duration of his or her 
attendance in NBISD.

Though the draft requires students be suspended from competition for 
their first three offenses, it allows the students to participate in 
extracurricular practices.

In response to accusations that the district was being soft on 
suspensions and wasting district money on the program, Patton said 
that the policy was not designed to be punitive.

"The biggest obstacle of this policy has been to communicate to 
people that because someone's test shows to be positive, it's treated 
under this policy not the Student Code of Conduct. They are not 
considered under the influence because this is a non-punitive intervention.

"The student code of conduct addresses drug use on campus or at 
school functions. This policy is more about deterring students from 
the temptation of using drugs in a society where the pressures are 
mounting and can be overwhelming. We want to educate the students and 
parents of harmful effects of drug use and intervene prior to any 
damaging or irreversible effects," Patton said.
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