School board approves random drug testing policy

Bedford County Board of Education passed a random drug testing policy Thursday night which will cover all students participating in extracurricular activities -- not just athletics but clubs, band, cheerleading and the like.

The policy standardizes random drug testing policies system-wide and expands the program to non-athletic activities.

The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, means the school system can't apply random drug testing to the student body as a whole. But since participation in extracurricular activities is considered a privilege, not a right, it is legal to ask students to agree to random drug testing as a condition of their participation.

The drug testing would be noted in the parental permission form which must be filled out before a student joins a team or club. Because the parent would already have agreed to the drug testing at that point, a separate parental permission would not be required at the time of the test.

The random tests will be for amphetamines / methamphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, opiates and -- in a very limited number of cases -- performance-enhancing drugs like steroids. The test for performance-enhancing drugs is much more expensive than other types of drug testing, and it's considered more cost-effective to look for visible signs of steroid use instead of randomly testing for it.

Any student, whether they participate in extracurricular activities or not, could be asked to take a drug test if the school system had reasonable cause to suspect the student of drug use. That's governed by existing policies, not by the new random testing policy passed Thursday night. A student who refused such a test could be subject to discipline.

Attorney Chuck Cagle, answering a question from a student at Thursday night's meeting, said reasonable suspicion would require more than just a teacher's spur-of-the-moment hunch. A more likely example of reasonable cause would be an extended pattern of aberrant behavior by a student.

Several students were in attendance Thursday night to report on their participation in the Student Congress on Policies and Education, a mock school board exercise sponsored by the Tennessee School Boards Association. Since drug testing policies had been one of the issues discussed by SCOPE participants, board members invited them to share their thoughts and questions. The students in attendance Thursday night were generally favorable to the idea of random drug testing.

The school board passed the new policy by voice vote.

The board also approved Thursday night a student wellness policy, including items such as student nutrition, physical activity and monitoring of overall student health.

Other discussion Thursday night:

* The board approved the latest draft of its proposed 2006-2007 budget. The budget presumes no increase in the property tax rate dedicated to schools, but it does assume that property tax collections and sales tax collections will rise due to growth.

* The board authorized School Superintendent Ed Gray to renegotiate an agreement for a right-of-way across land owned by James H. and Alma Jean Lamb. The right-of-way is needed for access to some property the school system has purchased for future expansion of Community School. The agreement as presented to the school board on Thursday states that a road must be constructed within eight years or the land will revert to the Lambs. School board members said that the eight-year period may be too short, depending on the progress of the proposed building program.

* The board approved a bid of $8,225 for purchase of a 13-inch lathe for the Central High School annex. The bid, from Eisen Machinery, was the lowest bid which met bid specifications; there was one lower bid which did not meet the specs.

* The board approved re-hiring Winnett Associates to perform the audit of individual school funds.