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Some patrons hope board might reconsider drug testing policy
Several patrons of the Nevada R-5 School District are upset about the drug policy recently adopted by the board. The new policy affects all students participating in any extra-curricular or co-curricular activity. The students must sign an agreement saying they will participate in random drug tests and be willing to supply a sample if they are chosen. Escalating penalties apply to those who test positive.
"The purpose of this policy is to prevent illegal drug use and to strive within the Nevada R-5 School District for an environment free of illegal drug use and abuse..." the policy states.
The board also selected a contractor to perform the random testing, and outlined the process in a September meeting. A Joplin company will select the students and those students selected will be tested. In the Sept. 8 meeting, and in interviews with the Nevada Daily Mail since then, parents expressed a desire to be there when the testing is performed, and some said they don't believe random testing is the right way to prevent drug use.
One of those parents, Mike Freeze, who has worked with behaviorally challenged youth and is working on his doctorate, opposes the plan as it has been adopted by the board.
Freeze said doesn't oppose suspicion-based testing, which he notes the schools could already do, but feels, among other things, that random testing creates an adversarial climate between youth and adminstration that is unnecessary
"I am against accusing them this way....causing them to have to prove they are innocent." Freeze said.
Freeze presented several studies, including one from the University of Michigan and one from Kent University, which he said indicate that random drug tests can be counterproductive.
Freeze added "I've worked in this field and I know there are better ways to handle this."
Freeze acknowledges that the board had the authority to put the policy in place but thought the move too hastily made.
"I'm not denying they can do this but the question is: Should they?" Freeze said.
Freeze said he'd seen no evidence connection between whether a school imposed a random drug testing policy or not and drug use.
"There's no direct correlation with drug use when policies such as this are imposed," Freeze said. "When I talked to Dr. Stephens I asked him for a study to support (the notion that random drug testing prevents drug abuse) and he didn't have one."
Stephens said that when he spoke to Freeze, the subject came up but that Freeze didn't ask him to produce such a policy.
"We did talk about that, but I don't recall him asking me for one," Stephens said.
Freeze also said Stephens tried to keep him from appearing at the board meeting, but Stephens denied the allegation.
"I wouldn't tell him not to come because that would be against the law," Stephens said. "We talked and I told him he could come but he would not be on the agenda because it was a public meeting, not a public forum."
Freeze also said the policy should include random testing of teachers and administrators.
"None of the teachers are tested and no administrators, just bus drivers are," Freeze said. "Don't ask those you lead to do something you're not willing to do yourself."
Stephens said teachers and administrators are subject to testing for cause.
Even though the decision's been made, Freeze says that Stephens and the board should still be open to change.
"He's gotten tied up in this draconian policy and he's not open to hearing opposing views," Freeze said.
But Stephens said patrons had time before the policy was adopted to state their views; but now the policy is in place, that time has passed.
"The time for opposing views was during the formulation process, not after the policy is in place," Stephens said.
The board should be willing to change according to Freeze.
"It didn't come down the mountain written in stone," Freeze said. "They changed the policy before. They can change it again."