Published: January 09, 2009 10:13 pm      

Mineral County school board still ironing out drug test policy

amilies will likely not have to pay for first screening

KEYSER, W.Va. — The Mineral County Board of Education is continuing to evaluate a potential policy on drug testing for students who participate in extracurriculars or drive to school, though there was some debate on how many times a year students can enroll in the testing.

“How difficult are we making it for a kid to participate in extracurriculars?” Terry LaRue, board president, asked at the board’s Tuesday meeting. “I have a problem telling kids this is when you do it or you can’t participate.”

LaRue said that he felt this could penalize the students, not only those deciding, perhaps at the last minute, to join a sports team or activity but also the students already on a team needing another member to qualify to play for the year.

It is not uncommon practice, LaRue said, for a coach to begin trying to recruit students very close to the start of season if the coach realizes the team will be short members necessary to participate in competitions for the year.

Board member Bob Shook said that he felt enrollment in the drug testing twice a year would catch those who might make the decision to sign up for an activity or a parking permit later in the year.

Enrollment would be required of nearly all competitive extracurricular activities including sports teams, band and academic teams. It would be optional for parents to enroll any child from seventh to 12th grade as well.

There was also question as to how many students would be tested and what percentage would be enough.

“It’s not how many you’re doing,” Skip Hackworth, school superintendent, said. “It’s the odds that they might be in that percentage.”

He said that the odds that a student could be tested and lose driving privileges or be suspended from the activity might be incentive enough not to take drugs.

“I think it’s responsible to be in favor of it,” Hackworth said.

The board agreed that any first-time testing should be free to the student’s family, even the student is opted into the program by parent consent. However, if a student tests positive, the family would have to pay the fee of additional testing, either in an appeal process or following required drug counseling.

Kevin Watson, board vice president, said that he felt overall, it is a positive step.

“It gives (the students) a chance to say no,” Watson said. “It gives them an easy out. Other counties show this has been very successful, and with our expulsion hearings mostly related to drug use, I fully support this.”

The board decided that the proposal still needs a lot of fine tuning, and it is expected to appear on the Jan. 20 agenda, with a new draft for board members to review.

Contact Sarah Moses at smoses@times-news.com.