ELFRIDA––After more than a year of debating the merits and shortcomings of implementing a random drug testing program at Valley Union High School, the school board there declined to pass the proposal by a three to two vote.
 The Valley Union High School Board declined to pass random drug testing Tuesday evening by a three to two vote. |
“But I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t pass,” Humphries said, who brought the proposal to the school board about a year ago. Humphries said the program had been tabled several times at various school board meetings.
The program as it was designed was intended to be preventative rather than punitive, Humphries said. A student would not be arrested if he tested positive; rather, he would be excluded from all extracurricular activities until he could clearly demonstrate that he was making progress toward going clean.
Sally White, the director for Willcox Against Substance Abuse, told the school board about the positive effects random drug testing had on her school. But mostly, the program was important, she said, because she had grown tired of attending drug-related funerals.
The program, however, did not have full support by the Elfrida community.
Mike Jackson said that marijuana was not necessarily a gateway drug, citing instead that alcohol and tobacco were bigger gateway drugs.
“If you test randomly, then get your money’s worth by testing for tobacco and alcohol,” Jackson said.
He also took issue with some of the wording in the proposal as it defined “getting to and from school” as an extracurricular activity. Jackson said that “getting to school” isn’t an extracurricular activity under Arizona Revised Statues.
Although Humphries will no longer push for random drug testing at VUHS, he said that at the very least he raised an awareness about the problem that exists at the school. He also has high hopes that the existing drug testing policy at VUHS will be enforced.
Comments
Mike Jackson wrote on Jul 10, 2008 8:56 AM: