Claymont’s random drug testing program for sports and other extracurriculars is heading back to the drawing board.
The school board committee will review and rewrite the revised 2018 policy that went into effect last month based on feedback from Nichole Bache and other concerned parents. She addressed the board last Monday, explaining how the requirement that eligible students undergo substance use treatment following a positive test could negatively impact their futures.
“They get an ICD-10 code of substance use disorder attached to their name. That will follow them for the rest of their life in their medical record. There are certain jobs – military, government clearance – you have to turn over your medical records. If that’s in there, we are limiting our kids on being able to take that job. I’m asking us to consider maybe our kids the first time they’re making a mistake, they don’t need treatment. They need the school counselor or they need their parents involved. We need to come around them as a community and say, ‘What’s going on?’”
Bache is the Director of Nursing for the New Philadelphia Health Department but wasn’t speaking as such.
“I am here tonight both as a concerned parent and a professional. However, I would like to make it clear at this time I am in no way representing my employer with any statements I’m making tonight.”
Board member Solomon Peters voted against the policy and made the motion to rescind it after Bache’s remarks.
“The ICD-10 code, for me that’s a big deal. I don’t think that’s really fair to our students and I think that contradicts our mission statement of creating an environment that nurtures, develops, and empowers each student and providing each student an opportunity for a lifetime of success. I think we’re backtracking on that if we leave this policy as it is.”
Other suggestions the committee will consider include adding an amnesty clause for eligible students who self-report substance use and utilizing a standard 12-panel screening with additional tests for nicotine and alcohol. The existing policy requires testing for a drug that hasn’t been available in the U.S. since 1980 and LSD – which accounts for less than one percent of all substance use nationwide – but not for methamphetamine.
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