Board Debates Drug Testing Officials Consider Adopting Program For Sandpoint High School Athletes

Student athletes and their drug habits were the topic of heated discussion at the Bonner County school board meeting Tuesday night.

Board members debated but did not make a final decision on a proposed policy that would extend mandatory, random drug testing of athletes to Sandpoint High School.

Athletes at Priest River Lamanna High School are subject to the drug tests as part of a pilot project for the district.

An informal student survey indicates that 20 percent or more of upperclassmen used or abused an illegal substance before a recent dance, said Sandpoint High Principal A.C. Woolnough.

Drug testing “seems to have made a difference at Priest River,” Woolnough said before Tuesday’s meeting. “We’d like to add that weapon to our arsenal.”

The specter of drug tests also “gives them an excuse to say, ‘Hey, I can’t do it, I might be asked to (urinate) in a cup,”’ he said.

Just talking about drug tests at the high school has curbed some abuse, he said.

Students have mixed opinions, said Erin Linell, a student representative to the school board. While the student council voted 15 to 3 in favor of the policy, that doesn’t necessarily represent the views of the student body, she said.

“A lot of students aren’t informed at all,” she said. “For you to make this decision fairly, you need to have students themselves informed.”

School board chairman Jim Cooper said he was all for drug testing of athletes when it was first approved for Priest River Lamanna High School, but now he’s having second thoughts.

“The more research I do, the more questions I have,” he said.

A school nurse, Barb Bensen, raised questions about whether the policy would violate students’ right to privacy and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

“What interventions have we done to prove we have to have a mandatory random drug-testing program?” she asked.

While Woolnough said drug use is increasing, another employee suggested why that might be the case.

Because of the misuse of state and federal drug education grant money, elementary schools in the district have been getting only 50 cents per student of that money.

“If you don’t educate them in the elementary schools, you’ve lost them by high school,” Candy Lund said. “Fifty cents per child is not enough.”

Problems with the drug grant funds were uncovered during the district’s annual financial audit. Auditors questioned how approximately $82,000 of the money was spent.

Some of it was spent on travel and other money was spent on equipment, but none of that was spent according to district procedures.

Overall, the audit showed that while financial matters are improving in the district, there’s still room for more improvement.

The district is in the black for the first time in years, but only had $87,000 in reserve in the general fund at the time of the audit. That’s only enough money for one day’s operating expenses.