SNYDER, Okla. – For the first time in Snyder High School history students from grades seven through 12 will randomly be subjected to drug tests. The policy is expected to begin next month.
The policy will only target students involved in extracurricular activities, from sports to academic functions, like the school yearbook. Officials say the main intent of the policy is to protect the health and safety of its students from illegal or performance-enhancing drug use and abuse.
Snyder School Superintendent Robert Trammell says drug activity in the community have been pretty high in the last six months. And because of that school officials want to make sure their students do not get caught up in it, too.
"It's a good idea. That's a good thing for our students to have a way out of situations that they otherwise may not be able to say ‘no' to," said Snyder student, Krisee Hill.
"It's a good thing we have this implemented drug testing. Even though it's not getting turned into the cops, we're going to catch it before it gets super bad," said Snyder student, Andrew Anderson.
These students are all in extracurricular activities, and will all be subject to testing. Trammell says, out of 225 seventh through 12th grade students at the school, 175 are involved in clubs, organizations or extracurricular activities. They will only randomly test a small group, though, each month.
"We're going to test 10 and that's probably about the minimal, but we feel that's a big enough percentage to keep the attention of the school," said Trammell.
The random testing, done each month, will cost the school about $3,000 each school year.
Trammell says these six pages detailing the new school policy drug policy go beyond just helping the students while in school.
"We're trying to do our part in our community. And we have had some negative publicity recently. And we hope that this policy can maybe address some of those issues. Get awareness at a young age. Get awareness into the home. And hopefully improve the quality of education in life in general," said Trammell.
Trammell says a student's first positive test will mean a joint parent teacher conference and another test after 15 days. If they get caught a second time they will get a 14-day suspension with four hours of mandatory counseling. Get caught a third time and the student will be removed from the extracurricular activity for an entire semester.
Those punishments drew mixed reactions from this group of students.
"It's not written down. It's not on your permanent record, which is good I guess. But then again maybe that's not enough to make someone stop," said student, Cheyenne Midrid.
"I would like it, maybe, if you got caught the third or fourth time, if you got in a little bit more trouble," said Hill.
Trammell says all he is waiting for now are the policies to be signed and returned from parents and then they will put it into action.
Trammell says parents must sign the consent form or their children will not be able to participate. He also said parents of kids who are not in extracurricular activities can also give consent to have their child placed in the random test pool.
