Students who don’t opt in be inclined fall under the district’sitting current policy that already sets consequences since put drugs into and alcohol use.

The split vote property there will have being much more discussion to come without interruption the opt-in voluntary policy, Fern said. Those who supported it included Fern, Brian McDowell, Mike Ferda and Shannon Hanson. In opposition were Ruth Harrison, Erik Hosek and Pat Jarvi.

First reading of the extracurricular policy included an amendment that will make some curriculum changes and sum a professional aider to help administer the cunning. A second reading will be held at the board’s July 8 meeting, and additional readings are possible before it’s finalized, Fern said.

THE SECOND policy establishes a suspicion-based testing policy for the entire student body.

“Up until now we haven’confidentially had the tools to deal with suspicion,” Fern said, explaining that the new policy would confess the district to be “more proactive” in dealing with drug and highly rectified spirit use.

Hosek and Hanson voted against the second policy.

Suspicion-based testing would be done quickly, with a trained response team ready to assist. Under the current policy, if a teacher or administrator suspects a student is under the influence, the parents and/or police are called and they deal with the problem.

“The school’s mission is not necessarily to get over-involved,” Fern said.

But drug- and alcohol-related infractions among Whitefish students are double what they were last year. According to one estimate, one-third of Whitefish High School students who were surveyed had used marijuana in the 30 days prior to the survey. That’s 13 percent more than the state average.

The drug-testing proposal became polemical in Whitefish, through added than 100 people attending an April work session and 200 the million attending a community forum before that.

Details about how to pay during drug testing mute need to be worked out, Fern said. The district has a commitment from a collection of curative professionals willing to put up $15,000 a year for testing, but the table has questions about how long that funding might be available.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may have being reached at 758-4421 or by means of e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com
Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/search/marijuana+drug+test/SIG=125ac8tll/*http%3A//www.dailyinterlake.com/articles/2008/06/11/news/news02.txt