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HAGERSTOWN STUDENTS TO FACE RANDOM DRUG TESTS

HAGERSTOWN, Ind.  - Students who participate in extracurricular activities will be subject to random drug testing beginning next year under a new policy approved by the Nettle Creek School Board.

Students at Hagerstown Junior-Senior High School will be assigned numbers, and the testing company, ASL Testing in Elkhart, will select numbers at random when administrators request a screening.

Students whose numbers match those chosen by the testing firm must submit to oral tests, which school officials say are less invasive than a urine test.

"It's just like having a sucker," said Mark Childs, principal of school in the community about 50 miles east of Indianapolis.

In cases of a positive result, tests will be repeated twice to confirm accuracy.

Any student who tests positive will meet with Childs, be offered counseling and will be barred from extracurricular activities for 30 days.  The student must submit a drug-free test to be reinstated in any activity.

"The whole idea is for it to be a deterrent," board Vice President Tom Gordon said of the policy.

Dan Davis, the only board member to vote against the proposal, said he disagreed with different penalties for extracurricular students and athletes.  Athletes must sign an agreement stating that if they are caught using drugs or alcohol, they will forfeit one-third of the season for a first offense, one year on a second offense and be subject to a lifetime ban from sports for a third offense.

An athlete who tests positive for drugs under the new policy will miss 30 days of the season.

The policy is modeled on one at Rushville High School that has been upheld in the Indiana Supreme Court.