Now this really will get your juices flowing (excuse the pun). I...

Now this really will get your juices flowing (excuse the pun).

I love the line, " Robinson said Pamlico's board approved saliva tests because urinalyses are too intrusive."

This is the start of something, they may not be using ours-yet, but someone has pushed the snowball off the hill.


Pamlico board approves random drug-testing
Matt Tessnear
May 7, 2008 - 7:12PM
Some Pamlico County students will be required to take random drug tests beginning this fall.

The Board of Education unanimously approved a drug-testing policy Monday night.

If a student in grades seven through 12 plays sports, drives to school, participates in extracurricular activities or takes a driver-education class, he or she must agree to participate in random saliva tests. The tests will check for marijuana, cocaine, phencyclidine, amphetamines, methamphetamines, opiates and alcohol in a student's body.

"We had a few kids that had to be taken out of school because they were high on one of the drugs," board member James Mason said. "We had a few picked up by rescue.

"But because the kids looked funny, you couldn't just pull them out of class and have them tested without a policy. We aren't looking to prosecute anyone. We are looking to save a few kids from ruining their lives with drugs and to let their parents know what's going on."

Brian Shaw, a Raleigh lawyer who represents the system, said two U.S. Supreme Court cases provide the authority for any system to randomly test its students for drugs.

The court ruled in 1995 that a system in Vernonia, Ore., could test football players because athletes represent the school and have a reduced expectation of privacy. The court ruled in 2002 that a Tecumseh, Okla., district could require middle and high school students who participate in extracurricular activities to take drug tests.

"The ruling was that a kid has a right to come to school and the government cannot make them give up that right," Shaw said. "But kids have a privilege, not a right, to play football or participate in an extracurricular activity. That's what we're looking at with Pamlico."

The names of all students who play sports, participate in activities outside class or park a car on campus will be entered into a list. Superintendent Rick Sherrill said the system will test a random group of those students four times each year. Sherrill said the number of students will vary, and a drug-testing company will handle the testing.

He said the company will sell saliva test kits, test the number of students the system wants and process the results. The system is talking to companies in Boston, Mass., and Huntersville.

Sherrill said each saliva test will cost the system $13. He said the system will pay for the tests with drug-prevention grant money it receives from the state each year and federal grants available to schools with drug-testing policies.

Students who test positive must enroll in a drug-abuse program and their principal and parents will be notified. Parents of students who test positive will have to pay for any costs of drug-abuse programs. The students will remain eligible to participate in sports or activities if they enroll in the program. A student who refuses to take a test will have the same consequences as someone who tests positive.

Students who test positive a second time will be ineligible to participate in sports and activities and cannot park a car on a school campus.

Chairman George Robinson said the board decided which drugs to test for by looking at policies other systems have. Craven and Jones counties do not test students for drugs.

But Beaufort County adopted a drug-testing policy in 2004. The system randomly tests 10 percent of athletes in grades seven through 12 with a urinalysis. Athletes who test positive must enroll in a drug-abuse program. If they do not, they are ineligible to play sports for 365 days.

Robinson said Pamlico's board approved saliva tests because urinalyses are too intrusive.

"If someone still says a drug test is intrusive, I would say they should argue with the courts that have allowed testing," Robinson said. "We'll be testing people in the band and people on teams.

"The courts have decided those activities are privileges, not rights. We may only catch two kids a year. But we hope that a young person will be at a party, someone will ask them to do a drug and he will say, ‘No, I can't.' "