School officials in Butler County’s eight other districts said they have had no discussions about potentially testing their students for drugs.
About 20 percent of high schools in the United States utilize drug testing, usually to screen students participating in sports or after-school clubs, according to national statistics. Which means, that Butler County’s 11 percent is far below the national average. With parental consent, drug testing of students who have privileges such as sports or an activity is legal in Ohio.
For the past four years, Edgewood has tested its high school students who drive to school or participate in extra-curricular activities, said Jason Heflin, Edgewood High School assistant principal.
Of the 1,100 Edgewood students in grades nine through 12, he said, about 90 to 135 students are randomly tested every year. Students are assigned numbers and the numbers are drawn by officials at Fort Hamilton Hospital, which administers the urine tests six to nine times a year. The tests are conducted during home room so they don’t interfere with academics, Heflin said.
Heflin said the school doesn’t keep track of the number of students who fail the drug test. But after they fail, he said, the student loses their driving privileges to school and their right to participate in school activities. The length of the penalty varies depending on the number of violations, and he said parents of those students are notified and the student is encouraged to seek medical treatment.
Another area school that tests for drugs is LaSalle High School, an all-boys Catholic school in Cincinnati. LaSalle is one of five Ohio schools, all private, that test 100 percent of its students, said Greg Tankersley, director of community development.
Two years ago, the 465 LaSalle students were tested voluntarily, and this year, the tests were mandatory in the first semester. Some time in the second semester, 33 percent, or 154 students, will be tested again, he said.
Tankersley said drug testing this year resulted in four positive tests, all for marijuana. The school met with the students and their parents or guardians, and the students were encouraged to seek treatment.
If a student fails the drug test twice, they are expelled from LaSalle, he said.
He said the tests serve as “a clear reason to say ‘no,’ and it gives them an out when it comes to peer pressure.”
The LaSalle program is operated in cooperation with the Coalition for a Drug-Free Greater Cincinnati, and it tests for cocaine, marijuana, various opiates such as Oxycodone and others, amphetamines and PCP. The test costs parents a $60 tuition increase, LaSalle officials said.
Talawanda may be the next Butler County district to implement a drug testing policy.
Random drug testing is under study by the district’s Health Coordinating Council. District Wellness Coordinator Amy Macechko recently made a report to the board of education, summarizing the work so far. Board members expressed reservations about requiring random drug tests, but said they wanted more information and urged the study to continue.
Macechko said each drug test costs $29 and the district would test about 300 students, which means the district would spend $8,700. She said another consideration is what intervention is available for students who test positive for drug use.
She also said survey data reveals that alcohol is the primary drug of choice among students and it can’t be tested. She said research is still incomplete on the effectiveness of the approach among professional groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics and National Association of Nurses.
Tom York, Talawanda High School principal and former Edgewood superintendent, said Edgewood studied random testing in 2005 prior to instituting a program.
“We do believe it is a deterrent for kids,” he said during the March meeting. “We do believe a child can use it as an excuse, the threat he might be tested. Talawanda is not unusual in terms of kids using drugs. We have had kids using heroin.”
High school students pressured by their peers to use drugs can rely on the possibility of being tested as a reason to not give in, saying they do not want to risk being removed from sports or other school activities, said Kristy Duritsch, director of the Safety Council of Southwestern Ohio.
When asked about researching drug testing in the schools, she said the Coalition for a Healthy Middletown is considering any “tool that gives students leverage to say ‘no.’”
DeAnna Shores, a member of the coalition and a Middletown School Board member, said she is meeting with the Health Coordinating Council group to learn more about its findings. After that, she may make a presentation to the school board to consider testing students who drive to school and those in extra-curricular activities, what she called “privileges.”
Middletown board president Marcia Andrew said there never has been any consideration to drug test students in her 10 years on the board. She said a canine officer from the Middletown Division of Police randomly searches the high school for drugs.
At some point, she said, districts need to “trust” their students to be drug-free, she said.
That seems to be the sentiment throughout the county.
Butler County public school districts Fairfield, Lakota, Hamilton, Madison, Monroe, New Miami and Ross — as well as private schools Badin and Fenwick — don’t drug test students and have no plans to start a policy, officials said. All of them said they have a student handbook that already addresses drug and alcohol use and its consequences.
The Covington District recently voted to implement a drug testing policy. Penalties have not been set, but board members, who approved the measure 5-0, said examples could include losing on-campus parking privileges for 30 school days on a first offense, or requiring a member of a team to sit the bench for part of a game or contest.
Superintendent Ken Miller said the change was prompted by an incident involving a prominent athlete at the school. School Board Vice President Brad Hall said problems in the community also drove the new policy.
“Unfortunately there have been some drug-related issues that have hit very close to home and it is a very real and present problem that has an impact on people’s lives,” Hall said.
Recent research has revealed these drug tests fail to dissuade teens from trying drugs. In a new study published in Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, researchers interviewed 361 students – a third of whom reported having a drug policy at school. Through these reports, the scientists said they did not find any evidence that drug testing successfully kept students drug-free. They noted that students from schools with drug testing were just as likely to try illegal substances as students from schools without drug testing.
“Even though drug testing sounds good, based on the science, it’s not working,” said study author Daniel Romer, of the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia. “So as a prevention effort, school drug testing is kind of wrong-headed.”
However, the researchers did find an effective drug deterrent for students. They discovered that a positive school environment — one with clear rules and good student-teacher relationships — helped to prevent teenagers from using drugs. Students enrolled in schools with a positive climate were 20 percent less likely to use marijuana and 15 percent likely to smoke cigarettes.
This article contains previous reporting by Bob Ratterman.
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