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Drug-testing underway for Boardman High School athletes and drivers
BOARDMAN
Drug testing of high-school student athletes and drivers for the fall sports season and start of the 2015-16 school year will continue today.
This round of testing, which marks the second year it’s mandatory for those students, began Wednesday, when 140 students submitted hair samples to technicians.
Soccer, golf, tennis and volleyball players gathered at the high school Wednesday morning to complete the step required before they are permitted to try out or practice for a team.
The policy, implemented at first on a voluntary basis and then on a mandatory one last year, will expand this year to include extracurricular activity groups, such as student council. School officials expect to offer it on a volunteer basis to club participants in December.
In addition to mandatory tests each year or season for athletes and students who drive to school, those students also are subject to random selection for testing throughout the year. Last year, the school district tested about half of the high school’s 1,500 students, with about three positive test results.
The policy is a response by the school district to drug abuse among students. District officials have focused more on the issue as several Boardman graduates died of drug overdoses in the last few years.
School officials say the measure is not meant to be punitive. If a student were to test positive, the first step would be to notify the student and his or her parents, and then the guidance department would coordinate some type of treatment program for them, high school Principal Cindy Fernback said.
For athletes, a positive test would not result in exclusion from the team. A first-time offense results in suspension from 20 percent of playing time, and a second offense results in suspension from 50 percent, district athletic director Denise Gorski said. She said school officials didn’t want to rob students of the chance to use athletics as a way to beat substance abuse or deal with other problems.
“There’s always a way back,” Fernback said.
Overall, school officials say, testing is going smoothly and without as much anxiety as last year.
“Parents have been very supportive of it, by and large,” Fernback said. “I think parents are appreciative that we’re identifying kids in need of help.”
Gorski and Fernback both said they have heard of instances in which students decided to get clean prior to the start of a sports season because they didn’t want to risk testing positive for any drug use.
“It gives kids an out,” Fernback said. “We’re trying to eliminate [peer pressure].”
School officials expect to receive results from this round of testing within three days. Tests detect drugs used within a 90-day period.