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Canfield schools drug testing forum tonight
CANFIELD
Schools Superintendent Alex Geordan said letters to administrators said “it’s about time” the district enacted a student drug-testing policy, which another said they feel is “for the betterment of our youth.”
District families who still have questions about the policy set to take effect for the 2019-20 school year can ask them at a community forum set for 6 tonight in the auditorium at Canfield High School, 100 Cardinal Drive.
Beginning this year, students who drive to school or participate in athletics or marching band must take initial urine tests for alcohol, nicotine or other drugs, then submit to random tests each quarter. By law, the district is not permitted to test every student in the district, Geordan said.
Failures will result in discipline and communications with failing students’ families, he said.
Testing will be conducted by On Demand Drug Testing, which recently opened along Patriot Boulevard in Austintown. Each test costs the district $12.50, which will be partially funded by bumping students’ parking passes from $10 to $20.
Geordan said he expects parents will want to know how samples will be collected and whether the process will be confidential.
Each qualifying student’s identity is assigned to a number randomly pulled by the testing agency, he said. Ten percent of the district’s qualifying students will be pulled out of classes each quarter – likely on a Monday – for random testing performed at the school, he said.
On-site screenings can identify each of the tested substances immediately, Geordan said. Parents of students who test positive for prescribed medications must present that prescription to facility workers. School district administrators themselves took the tests Wednesday that came back clean, he added.
He said other parents may question why nicotine is tested and pointed to what the media have called a teen e-cigarette “epidemic.”
Geordan said he feels the community has responded positively to the policy’s nonpunitive self-referral mechanism, through which students who admit to using one of the tested substances are instead referred to help programs. Parents of K-12 students who won’t be required to test may also opt in their students for the testing, he said.
“Many of the letters and emails I’ve received from the public have mentioned, if you can just save one life if you can institute something to create the dialogue within our schools ... it’s priceless,” Geordan said.