By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Hillsborough school board members are encouraging — almost begging — the community to tell them how they feel about the high school’s random drug testing policy.
The board put off a decision Monday night on abolishing the 3-year-old program.
The board scheduled the topic for discussion and a decision Oct. 22. Administrators have been asked to investigate and report what other school districts do with testing and drug prevention. The school board’s Education Committee also will review other policies that relate to preventing drug use among students.
Parents are encouraged to tell the board — by email, responses on the school’s website, letters or phone calls — how they feel. The decision was put off almost three months to give parents time, even considering summer break and fall startup.
Under the policy, all students who participate in extracurricular activities, clubs, interscholastic and intramural athletics or who have school parking permits must participate and submit a urine and/or saliva specimen to the school nurse when requested.
Board member Greg Gillette, who has long prodded the board to reconsider the policy, said he viewed random drug testing as an intrusion of students’ rights under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, which pertains to unwarranted searches and seizures.
He said the state Supreme Court found a way to allow random drug testing by separating voluntary activities from the education day. He said it ruled that anything — sports, clubs, even driving to school — beyond classroom activities could be regulated.
He said he thought the “high school experience” went beyond the schoolroom hours, and “you cannot separate those two things.”
Former school board member Neil Hudes, who left in 2011, said dropping the testing would be like giving up one weapon in the war on drugs. He asked rhetorically why board members thought drug testing was the part of the overall anti-drug approach that had failed and not counseling, the health curriculum, the DARE program or any of a number of variables.
Rather, he said, he saw the move to eliminate drug testing as steps by individual board members pursuing their own personal philosophy rather than being critical, sophisticated thinkers.
Member Jennifer Haley said she didn’t want to abolish the policy until the district came up with a better overall plan to fight drug and substance abuse.
”There are children who need this protection who don’t necessarily get it at home,” she said. “If you take away the threat, I think it’s going to get worse.”
Member Christopher Pulsifer agreed the district needed every program it had to combat the problem of drug and substance abuse. He said data and surveys reinforced there was a problem, “but didn’t tell us anything if this program succeeded.”
Member Thuy Anh Le suggested putting the question aside and asking the community to weigh in. At the same time, the board should review its goals and policies in the area, she said.
Board President Thomas Kinst said the school board mission is to provide a safe, secure environment, but drug and alcohol abuse off campus and outside of school hours and property is a parental responsibility, and “we need to respect that.”
Member Dana Bogusewski concurred, saying outside of a safe educational environment, it is the parents’ job to oversee their children. She said she wanted to hear how the public felt.
Mr. Gillette said, in adult life, people can opt to avoid jobs or activities that might expose their lifestyle. But that isn’t necessarily true, he said, for anyone who wants the full high school experience.
”I never opposed it because I didn’t think it wouldn’t work or cost too much money,” he said. “High school is the complete experience, not just 9 to 3, but everything else, too.”
The purpose is directed toward deterrence and remediation, reads the policy — “The policy is not intended to be disciplinary or punitive in nature . . . No pupil shall be expelled or suspended from school as a sole result of any verified test.”

