Plans are under way to begin randomly drug-testing students at Catalina Foothills High School, a move triggered in part by a September heroin bust on campus.
If the school can garner grant money and approval from the Catalina Foothills School District Governing Board, voluntary, "suspicionless" drug- testing could begin as soon as next fall, along with mandatory testing of some kind for athletes.
The move is in the very early stages of development, but it apparently would make Catalina Foothills — with its high school at 4300 E. Sunrise Drive — the first Pima County school district to institute such a policy. Several Phoenix-area school districts have been testing students for years — one for more than a decade — and another began just in February.
For the most part, Catalina Foothills' proposed testing would be nonpunitive. Parents and students would need to sign off on entering a pool of students who would be picked at random for testing. The families of those chosen then would receive a voucher — paid for through the potential grant — to either go to a testing clinic or use an at-home test.
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The only person at the school who would see the results would be a student's counselor, who then could intervene or provide help for the student. But students would not suffer any disciplinary action, teachers and administrators would not see the results, and findings would not go into the students' permanent files or be reported to law enforcement agencies.
"It gives them the impetus to keep going," Principal Wagner Van Vlack said. "It helps kids continue to say 'no.' "
Of course, some — if not many — students may opt out of participating. But Van Vlack said that alone may get families talking about drugs.
"That's an interesting conversation," he said.
The two-pronged policy would target athletes in particular. Officials are considering requiring student athletes to provide proof that they are drug-free before they can take part in athletics, including cheerleading.
Students who participate in those specific extracurricular activities also might be required to take random drug tests — or the random tests might be instituted in place of providing evidence upfront.
Student athletes who test positive would face disciplinary action in their extracurricular activities but not in the classroom.
Darla Greer said she would allow her two Catalina Foothills High School students to be picked for drug-testing. But, she said, in this age of high drug use among teens, random testing should be required of all students, not just athletes. To do otherwise, she said, would be discrimination.
"If they don't approve it (random drug-testing), they should prove why their kids shouldn't be part of it," said Greer, whose children are not playing sports now.
If the plan is enacted, she said, it would be great if other districts took the same initiative.
"This is a teenage-wide problem," she said. "It's not just a problem in our district."
Van Vlack said the policies developed out of a drug-prevention task force that was formed after three Catalina Foothills High School students were removed from class last September and arrested.
The students, all girls, were charged with possession of heroin in a drug-free school zone, a Class 4 felony.
"That generated a great alarm among school administrators, parents, students, the whole community," Van Vlack said.
The proposals are in the early stages of development and may not be fine-tuned until sometime this summer. One source for the grant may be the U.S. Department of Education. The district doesn't intend to use its own funds for the proposal.
Neighboring Amphitheater Public Schools considered testing students a few years ago, said Todd Jaeger, that district's attorney. But the plan died due to a lack of interest, he said. The only testing that is done now is on some students who have been expelled or suspended and are returning to school.
The issue of drug-testing in schools has been controversial at times. Even though opposition remains, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled it is legal for schools to mandate drug-testing for students who take part in extracurricular activities.
Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, isn't convinced, though.
"Families should not expect the government to be the parents of their kids," she said. "In general, the issue of drug-testing is a privacy violation."
Van Vlack hopes that at the least the suggested policy will prompt dialogue about using drugs and alcohol.
"It serves the community well," he said. "It's difficult to best educate students if they are experimenting with drugs or alcohol. It's part of creating a healthy student who makes sound decisions in school and out of school, and ultimately we want to prepare students on and off campus and for the future."
