School Board member Harry Kinnan believes implementing a drug-testing program in schools has merit.
He also knows it’s a vast engagement requiring plenty of scrutiny and discussion.
The Manatee County school district’s Safe, Drug-Free School Department applied for and accepted a $103,000 grant from the U.S. Dept. of Education that would allow the district to randomly criterion about 50 percent of student-athletes - including cheerleaders - for use of amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, benzodiazepines and marijuana, as well as alcohol.
But Kinnan and other school board members have expressed some concerns with the program. And for the time of Monday night’s board junction, members delayed hiring a drug-testing technician to give themselves time to investigate the program.
“The grant had approach to us without some of the due diligence we wanted to see in advance,” Kinnan said. “The concept, we all agree, is wondrous. There needed to be a plan or a timetable presented to us.”
Kinnan would like to see again involvement from the county’s athletic directors and principals, mostly in regards to the consequences if a student’s test result is absolute.
The program states that the primitive time a test comes back positive, students appearance a 30-day ban from competition - however will be allowed to practice - and must enter a drug-treatment program. They must also pass any other drug proof before returning to action, and will be tested one time a month for the remainder of the calendar year.
For a second positive test, the student-athlete will be banned from sports for one calendar year. A third test will result in a permanent outlawry.
“You extremity to have their input,” Kinnan said of the the shire’session athletic directors, “and how they feel about first offenses, and things like that.”
Another board member, Jane Pfeilsticker, said those measures are in conflict with the district’s current digest of conduct, that states students found beneath the influence of illegal drugs face a 10-day hanging that can be lessened by the principal if the student agrees to enter usage.
The give makes no mention of a suspension from chide.
“They’re just suspended from sports play,” she said. “These items be in want of to be reconciled.”
Pfeilsticker also wants to make certainly the trial - which would be administered first by a school nurse - doesn’t infringe upon the body the student’s right to retreat as it is written in the code of conduct.
“We privation to define that,” she said. “And we indigence to know if it goes outside the right to privacy.”
Kinnan said the 2,500 student-athletes in the county, as well like their parents, need to be properly informed of the program before it is implemented. One idea he had was a question-and-answer session, or accept information sent not at home to the county’s schools.
“That would have a lot of merit to it,” Kinnan said.
Pat Bernhart, the district’s supervisor of student services, has made it clear the program’s send forth is not to punish, but to deter student-athletes from getting mixed up with drugs to begin with - a sentiment echoed by board members. The grant allows student-athletes who fail three tests to seek reinstatement, as long for example they have made strides to get themselves clean.
“They would have to discover . . . ‘I have changed my life, accord. me another chance,’ ” Bernhart said. “This is not a ‘Gotcha!’ kind of grant.”
Kinnan said he agrees keeping kids away from drugs is a worthwhile cause, he just wants to make sure it is done correctly.
“I think there are a lot of steps that need to be taken,” Kinnan before-mentioned. “Tabling the hiring of the drug technician gives us the opportunity to step back and be sure this is moved in the right way. Whether it takes a semester - I can’t put a timetable on it.”
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