CHANGES IN STORE FOR DRUG TESTING POLICY

Drug testing changes are on the horizon for Graham Independent School
District.

The board of trustees met Tuesday and were questioned by Patricia
Harris concerning her son testing positive for the use of marijuana
and being suspended from band for 90 days.

She told the board she was unaware that the offenses accrued over the
entire four years of high school. She said that is not information
most parents have.

In a letter she wrote to the board she stated, "I want students and
parents at GHS to know that this handbook is a four-year contract."

The extracurricular code states the first offense penalty is
suspension from activities for two contests. The second offense
penalty is 90 days.

Harris said that because the first offense happened over a year ago,
she thought her son would essentially start over.

She was also distressed that when she spoke to officials at the high
school. Harris said she met with counselor Shannon Bozeman, Principal
Delesa Styles and Vice Principal Lisa Arrell, and no one was on the
same page in interpreting the policy.

"How can parents and students understand this policy if administrators
don't?" she asked.

She later added that she was glad the drug testing took place because
otherwise she would have had no knowledge of her son's drug use.

The board heard her out during the open forum portion of their
meeting, then began to conduct business as usual.

The last discussion item involved Superintendent Beau Rees'
recommendations to the board regarding changes to the drug testing
policy.

Rees recommends that the board change the mandatory testing
requirement of all participants at the beginning of each semester.

"It's just not feasible and it's ineffective," he said.

He added that because of the number of students involved, testing
everyone is costly.

Testing everyone at once is ineffective because if all students know
they are going to be tested at the beginning of each semester. Those
that might fail a random test have a chance to prepare for one that is
more or less scheduled.

He said the current practice is random testing only, and last year,
the school tested about 700 students over the course of the year.

Rees noted that it says in the policy that meetings with potential
student participants and their parents or guardians will be scheduled
for students desiring to participate in activities to discuss the
drug-testing plan, policy and procedures. He said not all groups have
had those meetings.

"Our desire for this was to go above and beyond, and we need to make
sure those meetings take place," he said.

Another recommendation included no longer requiring hair testing as
the method for confirming positive results. Rees said currently, the
second test is a test of the original sample. Hair testing comes in
when the results are appealed.

"We were told when we adopted this policy that hair testing was the
end all, be all of drug testing," he said.

It now seems that is not the case.

Rees said he has since learned that for most drugs, hair testing can
find any usage over the past 45 to 90 days, but it is ineffective in
discovering less than chronic marijuana use.

At the Nov. 18 meeting, Rees said he plans to present more information
to the board so they may further discuss the matter with plans to vote
on a new policy at the December meeting.