HILLSBOROUGH: HHS officials: Drug/alcohol policy needs work

   Hillsborough High School’s random drug testing policy will be on the chopping block at the next Board of Education meeting after officials said they have seen no improvement in the amount of student drug and alcohol abuse at the high school.
   ”We clearly have a problem” with drug and alcohol abuse, said board member Christopher Pulsifer.
   The school district received a three-year federal grant in June 2008 after the board passed its policy. However, the grant expired last year, and the board will vote on whether it will keep the policy in place in the upcoming school year.
   All students who are involved in a school-sponsored extracurricular activity, including sports teams, or who park their car in the school parking lots must consent to participate in the random drug testing program.
   Hillsborough High School Principal Karen Bingert said she believed the random drug testing acted as a deterrent and gave kids a reason to say no if they found themselves in a situation where alcohol and drugs were prevalent.
   But board member Greg Gillette disagreed, citing a story about a boy who, according to him, was at the top of his class and an athlete, but admitted to abusing alcohol and drugs.
   ”It is not a deterrent,” Mr. Gillette said.
   Mr. Pulsifer said, “If (using drugs) is something they want to do, they’re going to do it either way.”
   Under the conditions of the federal grant, the high school was required to test 200 students each year, however, this past year the high school only tested 50 students.
   Mr. Gillette expressed concern about the lower number of students tested in the last school year even though the board set aside enough money in the budget to continue to test 200 students.
   The high school’s nurse supervisor, Lorraine Borek, said she did not test 200 students because she had other projects to deal with.
   ”I had to prioritize,” Ms. Borek said.
   The first year the program was in place, five students tested positive for abusing marijuana. The past three years have seen an increase in the amount of students who have tested positive for using marijuana. Despite the lower number of students tested in the 2011-12 year, six students tested positive for marijuana use, one more than last year.
   Along with random drug testing, the high school also administered the American Drug and Alcohol Survey to see how many students in the school were using alcohol or drugs. Approximately 50 percent of the high school students participated in the voluntary survey.
   The survey revealed the amount of students who admitted to using alcohol at least once in the past year rose from 49 percent of students surveyed in 2009 to 54 percent in 2012. Similarly, marijuana use rose from 12 percent in 2009 to 17 percent in 2012.
   Mr. Pulsifer expressed concern about the students who opted out of the survey.
   ”Some of those students are probably also using,” he said. “We clearly have a problem.”