by PJ Rooks
Landmark reporter

Based on letters to the editor that arrived last week and again in this issue of The Landmark, a recent decision by one area school board is a controversial move.

North Platte students who want to play sports this year will have to do more than keep their grades up and pass a physical, they will have to submit to a drug test. Citing the safety, health and well-being of the students as its reason, the North Platte R-1 School Board recently approved a new, mandated drug testing policy which will require anyone wishing to drive to school or participate in extra-curricular activities to submit to a urine screening.

"Participation in school-sponsored extracurricular and co-curricular activities in the district is a privilege," reads the district's policy sheet on the new drug testing requirements. "Likewise, student parking is a privilege. Accordingly, students who have these privileges carry a responsibility to themselves, their fellow students, their parents and their school to set the highest possible examples of conduct, including avoiding the use or possession of illegal drugs.”

Superintendent Jeff Sumy said that although it is confidential what each panel of drug screens will include, the school will not be testing for alcohol use.

Adding that he prefers the term "non-negative" to "positive" to describe test results that aren't definitively clear, Sumy said that drug testing may be new to Platte County, but it is not new for schools.

According to the district's policy sheet and a separate draft of the testing procedures, students will be required to turn in consent forms for testing within ten days of beginning participation in an extracurricular activity and will also not be allowed to park on school grounds until the consent form is received. Students who do not turn in the form in the stated time frame will be excluded from parking and extracurricular activities for the rest of the school year and those who refuse to test will be considered to have tested non-negative (positive). Those who do test non-negative will lose their activity and/or parking privileges but will not face suspension unless they violate some additional aspect of the district's discipline policy also. Students who test non-negative may continue to participate in co-curricular courses that carry a grade, such as choir and marching band, but will not be allowed to attend field trips or after-school events with their group.

Consequences, according to the procedures, will be suspension of parking and activity privileges for 30 days after the first offense, the remainder of the year after the second and the remainder of the student's high school career after the third. Reinstatement of privileges will require a negative re-test. Drug testing records, according to the policy, will be kept separate from students' permanent educational records and will be destroyed upon graduation.

After consenting to the drug screen, students may be tested at random throughout the school year.

"We just want to give kids the incentive to have a choice not to get into drugs and alcohol. I think it's a good program to give them that choice, " said board member Debie Asher. "We need to give kids a way out--to give them a way to say, 'No, I'm in sports, I can't do that'-to get away from peer pressure.”

Some parents in the district, however, are less than pleased with the school's new approach.

"I think it's an insult to my daughter and the other children and parents of this district," said Jon McLaughlin, father of a North Platte basketball player. "It's just ridiculous that they came in as heavy-handed as they have. If you're a sports person, that kills your year. It's a huge infringement on these kids' civil liberties."

McLaughlin said he is unhappy both with the policy and with the school's handling of it. Parents, he said, are being asked to sign a permission slip, indicating that they have read all the district's policies and procedures on the new drug testing, but McLaughlin said he is annoyed because the procedures are neither included with the permission slip nor are they easy to find on the district's Web site. In fact, he found them buried inside a document titled "Board of Education Goes Paperless."

The district's home page does show an article on the new drug policy, and includes a link to read more, but, as McLaughlin pointed out, the link only provides the policy, and not the procedure, on which parents are also expected to give consent.

To retrieve the procedures for testing, McLaughlin shared the following internet path: Go to the Web page, www.nppanthers.org, click on the drop down, "School Board" menu, click on "Board of Education Goes Paperless," click on the purple link at the bottom of the white screen, click on "Go to Meeting," click on "Regular Session," click on "Administrative Procedure," download the procedure in Microsoft Word format.

McLaughlin said he feels that the district is extorting parental consent out of people by saying that the kids can't participate unless the form is signed.

"The biggest thing is it's just disrespectful for them to ask parents to sign something that they've read something when it’s simply not there," he said.

(Editor's note: An e-mail update from McLaughlin Tuesday morning reflected that after The Landmark spoke with Sumy about McLaughlin's concerns, the district's Web site was updated to provide the drug testing policies and the administrative procedures through an easy jump-off point on the North Platte Panthers homepage: www.nppanthers.org.)

What's more, McLaughlin has unanswered questions.

"What if my child can't go to the bathroom?" he asked. "Are they going to hold them hostage for three hours? If you drink a lot of water, you get a false (result). Is drinking a lot of water going to get my daughter suspended from the basketball team?”

Sumy said that while everyone will have their opinion about the new program, the school's goal is to give students a choice.

"I think it's a good thing," said Sumy. "It's going to give us the opportunity to help kids.”

Sumy said that anyone who has questions is welcome to call the district office at 816-450-3511.