The Claude ISD Board of Trustees has giving the go ahead to start submitting students grades 7th through 12th that participate in extracurricular activities to random drug screenings.  According to Claude ISD, random students will be selected for a urine analysis 4 times during each school year.

Drug screenings in public middle and high schools has became fairly common over the past few years, the main bullet point school districts are giving for reasoning of drug screening is, "it gives students a reason to say no".

Yeah, that's right, they're submitting students to random drug screenings because as a student participating in extracurricular activities, if one were to fall under peer pressure to try or use drugs, this would give them an easy excuse to say they can't in fear of a random urine analysis.

Amarillo Globe News reports:

Claude ISD Superintendent Jadie Matthew said drug-testing programs are fairly common among public middle and high schools.

 

“There was concern in the community to do anything we can do that can discourage kids from doing drugs,” he said. “It gives kids an out. If they’re in a situation where they’re pressured to do drugs, they can say, ‘I get tested. I can’t do it.’ It’s a deterrent, and they don’t lose status from their peers, because there’s a good chance they’ll get caught if they do it. It gives them a good excuse to say no.”

 

James Lane, Claude ISD’s athletic director, said another school he worked at, Cisco High School in Cisco, was successful with a similar policy.

 

“It gives kids options if they’re not where they’re supposed to be,” he said.

 

Any student who does test positive for drugs will automatically be put in to be tested in the following drug screening rounds for the year.  For every student that undergoes a drug screening, on their 1st screening, if they do test positive, they will get 20 days suspension from competition and mandatory participation in a drug counseling program.  But that's only for "first time offenders".

A second offense results in suspension from extracurricular competition for a year, and a third offense would suspend a student from competing in all extracurricular activities for the rest of their enrollment in Claude ISD.

So if students do test positive on drug screenings, there are no legal penalties to it.  It's a way to "encourage" kids to stay away from drugs.  Kind of like the "No Pass, No Play" rule, except there's more than just a math test they have to pass now.

 

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