WCHS stops its drug testing program

Warsaw Community High School has halted its random drug-testing following the Indiana Court of Appeals ruling.

"We are in conversations with our school attorney, but it looks like everything's just going to be on hold. ... Obviously we're going to follow the law," said Dr. Lee Harman, superintendent.

"It appears that there's some serious ramifications for us if we continue," he said.

The drug-testing policy for student athletes has been in effect since the 1995-96 school year. Student drivers and those involved in vocational education were added later.

WCHS is the only high school in Kosciusko County to randomly test for drugs and alcohol, though Triton Junior-Senior High School was "looking into it for next year," said principal Ted Chittum.

Whitko High School has a student assistance program, and students who are identified as having substance abuse problems are tested, said principal Larry Stoner.

"But we do not test our athletes, or anybody, on a random basis," Stoner said.

Warsaw also considered adding students involved in extracurricular activities to the random drug-testing policy, said WCHS assistant principal, Dr. Jennifer Brumfield, but decided against it.

"The Supreme Court had stated there had to be a safety issue involved," Brumfield said. That could be justified with athletes and student drivers, she said, but not with students in extracurricular activities.

The first time a student athlete tests positive for drugs or alcohol, Brumfield said, they are suspended for one year from competing, with the option of reducing that suspension to one-half year if the student successfully completes substance abuse education or intervention, Brumfield said.

Drivers who test positive are suspended from driving on school grounds or to school activities for nine weeks or 45 school days.

Vocational education students may be removed from the program or transferred to another program, she said, depending on the individual circumstances.

A positive test result also could allow WCHS administration officials to search the students car, locker and body, but Brumfield said that has not been done.

Harman said the testing policy was devised as a preventative measure.

"We worked at this quite a while before we implemented it on the safety consideration," he said.

The future of the testing program is uncertain, he said of the Court of Appeals decision: "Whether or not this will go further, we don't know."