The Umatilla School District continues to discuss implementing a student drug-testing policy but will meet with an attorney one more time before drafting a final document.
The proposal would allow the district to perform random drug tests on secondary school students enrolled in extracurricular activities. All students at Umatilla High School and Clara Brownell Middle School would be required to sign a document accepting the possibility of random drug tests in order to participate in sports and other activities.
On Thursday night, the Umatilla School Board of Directors said the primary focus of the policy is student safety. Board members and district staff have said they hope the policy will act as a deterrent for students because they know they could be tested at any time.
“If you were to get the truth, we have a problem. Every community has a problem,” said board member Travis Eynon, a Hermiston police officer. “We don’t’ have any more of a problem than any other community – we don’t have any less of a problem than any community. Just because we don’t have proof in hand doesn’t mean we don’t have a problem.”
This month, board members met with Ben Becker, an attorney for the Oregon School Boards Association, to discuss legal implications of the policy. Thursday night, board member Shelley Kennedy said Becker advised adopting the policy and using it as “a tool in the toolbox” to use when needed. Board members agreed with the attorney that the district should try less invasive measures before implementing the random drug screenings. Other tools include periodic school sweeps by a drug detection dog and the ability for parents to request their child is drug tested.
The district will work with those and other less invasive methods before considering random drug testing, according to District Superintendent Heidi Sipe.
“You try these lesser means first,” she said. “To test without some proof found first was a concern for the attorney. He recommended putting the policy in place, continuing the (other methods), and then, if there is an incident, if there is a spike in drug use, then testing … There has to be a triggering event. If and when a triggering event occurs, then you decide who should be tested, what percentage.”
Random drug tests could apply to the entire body of students involved in extracurricular activities, or to one group of students. For example, some Umatilla football players were recently suspended from the team for a drug-related incident. If the district had adopted the proposed policy prior to the incident, it would be justified in testing a percentage of the high school football team, as long as it selected students from the team at random.
“When the police bust a party, there’s a good change, if there are athletes there, they’re going to be from a team,” Eynon said. “The football players hang out together … soccer players tend to hang out together. As a coach, I’m a little pissed off I have players using substances that got them suspended from the team when we could have caught that at the beginning of the season. We want them to participate, we want them to play. We just don’t want them playing under the influence.”
Eynon and other board members agreed that if they adopt a policy, it must be with the intent to use it.
In other business, the board:
• Declared a vacancy after newly-appointed member Paulette Dufloth resigned for personal reasons. The district is accepting applications for the position through Jan. 31, and the board expects to appoint someone at the February meeting. The appointed individual will serve until June 30, 2015.
• Discussed the upcoming board survey, as well as community, staff and student surveys. Once completed, the information from all surveys is compiled to give an overall impression of the strengths, weaknesses and perceptions of the Umatilla School District.
• Authorized district staff to apply for almost $750,000 in federal funding.
