This fall, a Missouri school district will start randomly drug testing students who participate in extracurricular activities.

This is in accordance with a policy passed by the school board last spring.

Steve Klotz, assistant superintendent, said the measure will affect most of the 700 middle and high school students in the district.

“Of those 700, we anticipate approximately 80 percent of them will be part of the tested population, because they participated in regulated activities,” he said.

Parents of those students who don’t take part in extracurricular activities or park on school grounds can voluntarily place them in the testing pool.

Disciplinary actions will come in a three-tiered system. For the first positive test, the student will be suspended from extracurricular activities for 30 days. For a second positive result, there will be a 90-day activity suspension, and for a third positive result, there will be a year’s suspension from all extracurricular activities.

Employee Screening Services, a Springfield, Mo.-based company, will conduct the testing. There will be two types of testing measures available: a four panel which costs $14, and a more comprehensive, 12-panel test that comes at a cost of $21.

Mr. Klotz estimates it will cost the district between $5,000 and $7,000 a year to administer the test.

Read more at News Press Now.

Although both the school district and most parents support the effort, that does not mean that the policy will escape litigation. In the past, students have sued school districts who have introduced random drug testing.

 

What do you think? Will random drug testing deter drug use among use?

Is this a waste of already precious resources?

A violation of student rights?

Sound off below!