And so it begins.

https://www.theeagle.com/news/local/college-station-isd-drug-testing-begins-for-high-school-students/article_f66d9a13-233f-518f-8a39-358aa21cdff4.amp.html

The Eagle.

My child told me last night that a classmate said he had dropped out of his sport (I'm not going to mention the sport so as to protect the student) because he doesn't want to risk being drug tested and getting caught. It seems he'd rather give up the sport than drugs. I hadn't thought about this as a potential outcome of the new drug testing policy. Does anyone know if the administration or board discussed this as a possible outcome of the new drug testing policy or whether anything is in place to address this occurring? I guess I'm of the mind that the last thing we need is kids using drugs dropping out of all of their activities. Wish there was a way to create a safety net for kids (rather than just have punishment in place).

I do agree with you Stupe, and I'm certainly not defending the kid's choice. Just wondering if this was something that was discussed and if there is anything in place to address this issue (assuming the policy is about deterrence from drug use).

This was announced last Spring and the coaches from each sport have been driving that fact home to their athletes on an almost daily basis.
If the loss of a sport after all of that time and all of those warnings wasn't a deterrent, then a hard lesson is exactly what they need.
Giving them an "alternative" to a punishment that they KNEW was a consequence is just going increase the "I can get away with it" attitude.

Edit: I used "sport" because that is what my son does. But I know kids that are in drama, band, choir, etc... and their instructors have been doing the same thing.

If a kid fails one of these things, it's on the kid to be clean by the next drug test if they want to participate again.

AggieMom_38 said:

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My child told me last night that a classmate said he had dropped out of his sport (I'm not going to mention the sport so as to protect the student) because he doesn't want to risk being drug tested and getting caught. It seems he'd rather give up the sport than drugs. I hadn't thought about this as a potential outcome of the new drug testing policy. Does anyone know if the administration or board discussed this as a possible outcome of the new drug testing policy or whether anything is in place to address this occurring? I guess I'm of the mind that the last thing we need is kids using drugs dropping out of all of their activities. Wish there was a way to create a safety net for kids (rather than just have punishment in place).

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Sounds like a phone call to a parent to me.

The student will not be able to "opt" out at work.

Sure he can - it's called unemployed.

Glad to see the crackdown on these drug users. CSISD is doing something right, at least in this regard.

This should carry over to voting and having a seat in the "house" for starters, qualification to receive food stamps or whatever it's called now, teaching in all public schools including higher ed would be the cherry on top.

Caught some!

https://www.kbtx.com/content/news/CSISD-announces-results-of-first-year-of-random-drug-testing-on-students-511499212.html

So is this win to you?
How many dollars did we spend to discover that less than 3% of the tested group uses drugs of some sort? How does this help/improve the district?

cslifer said:

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So is this win to you?
How many dollars did we spend to discover that less than 3% of the tested group uses drugs of some sort? How does this help/improve the district?

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Have you not read the thread? The arguments for and against have been hashed out repeatedly here.

I have, I was asking you specifically. You seem excited that they "caught some".

cslifer said:

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I have, I was asking you specifically. You seem excited that they "caught some".

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Excited is too strong a word. I do think the results show success. Some appeared to doubt whether any drug users at all would be caught. These results released by the district should put those doubts to bed.

So again I ask you, is this a win to you? And how does this help/improve the district?

cslifer said:

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So again I ask you, is this a win to you? And how does this help/improve the district?

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So again I state, the results are in. I think those underage illegal drug users caught by the program now have a chance to clean their lives up. I'm sure you agree.

So they wouldn't have a chance to "clean up their lives" without thousands of tax payer dollars testing for drugs? It amazes me that people will complain about school budgets/taxes but think this is a responsible use of our money.

I'm sorry that there were students in extracurricular activities that made those decisions.
I'm also glad that they got caught.
Peer pressure in high school can be brutal and this gives some kids that may not have the right influence at home an out.

"They are drug testing and if I can get caught, they will kick me off of the team."

Heard in the news that a district in Nebraska is adding nicotine into their drug panel (as a way to combat Juuling).

cslifer said:

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So they wouldn't have a chance to "clean up their lives" without thousands of tax payer dollars testing for drugs? It amazes me that people will complain about school budgets/taxes but think this is a responsible use of our money.

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See p. 3 of this thread for a discussion on school budgets and line items.

This was a UNANIMOUS board decision. If you're unhappy with it, take it up there. But obviously they thought it was worth the expense (less than a year's teacher salary) and now they have reported on the success of the program.

They voted, they were transparent, and the program worked. Win, win, win.

Something in the KBTX article that I didn't realize was part of this policy (bolded/italicized is mine):

Quote:

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The policy requires random drug testing of any student in grades 9-12 who chooses to participate in school-sponsored extracurricular activities or has a permit to park a vehicle on school property.

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So in order to get a parking permit, a student has to submit to the random drug testing as well? That may be where some of the failed drug tests came from too.

Is this panel testing for anabolics as well ?


I'd like to see an open records request that shows the breakdown of students caught and what extracurricular activity there were in versus how many were from parking permits.

Some parts of your inquiry might fall under the auspices of student privacy. Certain extracurricular activities may have low enough numbers that it would be possible to identify individual students and I am not sure that is allowed for the general public. Just because the students know who got busted and talk about it in the halls does not mean that everyone else is privy to that information in a publishable format.