School, parents discuss drug policy

MINSTER — Minster Local Schools held a forum Thursday night to discuss with parents the new drug testing policy that the board of education passed at its most recent meeting.

Parents, students, school board members and administration were all present at the meeting to get a dialogue going about the policy, which is written where only students who participate in extracurricular activities can be tested.

Great Lakes Biomedical owner Kyle Prueter spoke and took questions for more than an hour from concerned parents and community members about the process of implementing drug tests.

Prueter said Great Lakes Biomedical works with 160 schools in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana and that the testing program isn’t “to try and get someone,” it’s preventative in nature and educational.

The policy states: “This policy reflects the Board and community’s strong commitment to establishing a drug-free extracurricular program. This policy applies to all students in grades 9-12 who are athletes, athletic managers/trainers/statisticians, band members (marching, concert, and/ or symphonic) and/or participants in board-approved clubs as listed in the

MHS handbook.”

The policy says that the purpose is to: “Provide a healthy and safe environment for all students participating in the program; encourage students who participate in extracurricular activities to remain drugfree — students assume all responsibility all for regulating their personal lives in ways that result in their becoming healthful members of a group and worth representatives of the school and the community; Provide students with the opportunity to become leaders of the student body for a drug-free school; provide solutions for the extracurricular participants who do use drugs; and provide the school with positive guidelines and disciplinary policies for violations of the drugfree policy.”

Minster is unable to mandatory test every student and the students who are chose are picked at random, so some could be chosen more than once.

“We do all the picking of the kids through random number generating. They’re all numbers to us,” Prueter had said at the November board meeting. “We put all the roster into a random number generator. We will send that over to the designated person, one or two people we talk to.”

Some parents felt that it violates the student’s privacy and other freedoms and others were concerned about the collection process and where the samples end

up.

Some parents questioned the labs that Great Lakes Biomedical uses to conduct tests and asked if they store data and sell it.

Others were concerned that since the drug testing is only done for students who participate in extracurricular activities, that participation would go down.

“Confidentiality is what our business is built on,” said Prueter, saying that his company doesn’t sell or use the collected samples in any other way.

Each school has a designated person that runs the testing and nobody else is contacted other than the parents, if their is a positive test.

Grades 7-12 Principal Austin Kaylor, who has been principal for three years and a teacher at Minster for 12 years before that, shared a couple of stories about how the conversations started regarding the school implementing a drug testing program.

Kaylor said in the fall of 2019 he had a staff member provide a list of names of kids that were “driving around on the weekend and smoking pot” that was given to them from a former Minster student.

“I’m not making parent phone calls based on that, but I see the names on the list guys, and I’m flabbergasted because I think the same thing you think about our kids,” said Kaylor. “No way, not here. I’m telling you there’s things that are crossing my desk that are making my head shake. Am I acting on it? No.”

Kaylor said the school has drug K-9s that sweep

the school periodically “like most schools do.”

“The dogs have stopped and hit at lockers and cars in the parking lot. We have obviously performed searches of those lockers and cars, followed all necessary protocol and never found a thing,” said Kaylor. “But, I’m told by those law enforcement officers, that these dogs don’t mishit. When a first dog hits, they’ll take a second dog by it to confirm it. What they’re telling me is that it’s been in that car, it’s been on those clothes, it’s been in that backpack. It’s been there. Did a sibling borrow a car? Was it a borrowed sweatshirt? Maybe, but it’s there.”

Kaylor said that he knows of students that live in homes where drugs are there.

“They necessarily aren’t the ones using them, but these are in their house,” he said. “They are very likely to have access if they want. I know that for sure, guys.”

Minster Police Chief David Friend was unable to attend Thursday but Kaylor said his message was: “These things are here, whether you want to believe it or not, and these substances are far more deadly than anything that was out there when any of us were young.”

School Superintendent Brenda Boeke stressed that the school isn’t “out to get” the students, the program is simply there for preventative measures and educational purposes.

“Chief Friend thinks we are being proactive. He absolutely sees drugs in Minster. He knows

there’s synthetic marijuana here — he’s concerned about it,” said Boeke. “He’s also concerned about the fentanyl lacing of drugs and he’s very concerned for our youth and the young adults that he sees using it as well. So he is on board with this.”

If a student does test positive for drugs, the building principal will convene a meeting with the student and their parents, per the policy. The family must agree to a retesting schedule for the student at the district’s expense.

Prueter said Thursday that the average cost of one drug test is $17.

The policy says that the student will not be denied any athletic or extracurricular participation, and the positive test results will only be known by the student, parents and principal. If the family refuses this option, the student will be immediately denied participation in athletics and extracurriculars for one calendar year.

A second positive test will result in referral to and and completion of a drug assistance program at the family’s expense; a resetting schedule will be set (similar to the first positive test) and denial of the privilege to participate in no less that 50% of the schedule athletic contests. Additionally, the student would be denied the privilege to participate in extracurriculars for six calendar months.

A third positive test would result in a drug assistance program, a retesting schedule and denial of extracurriculars for one calendar year.