Student Opposes District's Random Drug Test Policy

The district’s three-year-old Random Drug Testing policy continues to draw concern from various areas, including at least one high school senior at last week’s Board of Education meeting.

In addition to his opposition of the practice, Loren Rasmussen, a high school senior, felt administering the test singled him out in several ways, he said.

“Recently, a couple weeks ago, I was drug tested at Hillsborough High School, where I’m a senior,” he said. “It was very, kind of just rude how they did it.  They came into my class, in front of everyone, and the nurse said, ‘You have to come down to the office.’   Now, at that point, every body in the whole room knows what’s going on.  .  . Every student in the class knew what was happening.

“As soon as I got there, I was absolutely guilty of having a bad sample until I was able to give a real sample,” he continued.  “I didn’t want to take my test, and I eventually did and passed it.  .  .Their premise was ‘we’re going to treat you as if you’re guilty’ and you’re going to be tested again in five weeks.”

The district approved its Random Drug Test policy and program in February 2008, after two meetings marked with commentary from high school students, parents, teachers and administrators from other districts, including Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

The district’s policy is modeled after the Hunterdon Central policy, and states that any student participating in an extra curricular activity, club, sport or who parks on campus is subject to the test.  A computer program selects the candidates randomly and students can be selected more than once in the same year.

The tests involve either mouth swabs or urine screenings, which are administered by the school nurse—the nurse does not, however observe the urine screenings.

Students with positive drug tests are suspended and must undergo a medical exam, and are also removed from extra curricular activities until they complete a preventative education program and submit a clean test.

Rasmussen said he has always been against drug testing, which was the reason he did not want to submit to the test.  When he asked the consequences of refusing the test, he was told he would be removed from National Honor Society, the activity that places him on the list.

“I’m not going to jeopardize myself as a competitive applicant (for college) just to avoid a drug test,” he said.   “In previous years I was in school sports, now I’m in National Honor Society.  It’s not like I’m doing any bad thing.  I’m just trying to become a competitive applicant in the college process.”

The testing also misses the demographic it’s attempting to find, since several students will simply avoid extra curricular activities in order to stay out of the testing pool, according to Rasmussen.

“I know students who just won’t do anything extracurricular at all because they do drugs,” he said.  “I know other people who have increased their drug use to drugs that are more dangerous, like moving from marijuana to cocaine and heroin just to pass the drug test at the high school because those won’t show up.”

Rasmussen also noted the drug and alcohol use surveys given to high school students might provide flawed information as well.  Many students in his homeroom will fill the surveys with joke answers rather than serious responses, he said.

 “We can do many better things than pick out people for things they probably haven’t done,” Rasmussen said.

Since his remarks came during the New Business portion of the meeting, the board was not obligated to comment on it.  However, one board member offered a clarification on where the policy originated.

“That policy originated right here, with this board,” Board member Greg Gillette, who voted against the policy during his first term on the board, said.  “We can stop that policy any time we like.”