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Graduation dates discussed
A bit of a philosophical divide on the benefits of a drug testing policy began to show at the Monday meeting of the Indian Lake School Board meeting.
On one side, board president Mark Albright believes the success of drug testing cannot be quantified while Superintendent Pat O’Donnell and the two board members on the policy committee, Steve Spath and Gabe Wickline, said they are leaning toward data that indicates drug testing is not a financially viable solution to deterring drug use.
Mr. Spath and Mr. Wickline reported that their committee has gathered data and examined policies from 20 other school districts with drug testing policies, including Wapakoneta and Bellefontaine.
They focused on Wapakoneta schools and said administrators there do not believe random drug testing is financially worthwhile. The school tests 10 percent of its athletes annually at a cost of several thousand dollars per year and in four years, has only had one student fail a test. In the same time period, eight students were disciplined for violations of other alcohol or drug policies, Mr. Wickline said.
“We went into this with one mindset and we kind of flipped the way we were thinking about it in the middle,” he said. “Part of my hang-up is how do we fund the thing? How do we justify the expense?”
Mr. O’Donnell indicated he believes enhancing existing policies that deal with alcohol and drug use would require less financial commitment and could achieve similar results.
“It’s a question of how do we justify the expense if we aren’t catching anyone,” he said.
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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