Some Crete parents upset over new drug

Some parents at the Crete Public Schools are upset and confused about a new student drug-testing policy and are speaking out.

The Crete school board passed a policy in July mandating all students in grades 7-12 who participate in extracurricular activities or use the school parking lot be enrolled in randomized drug testing. Parents also can opt to enroll students who do not fall into either category into the program.

The school district in Crete, located about 82 miles southwest of Omaha, will use Sport Safe, an organization that handles drug testing for schools nationwide, including multiple other districts in Nebraska. Using urinalysis, it will test students for marijuana, opiates, barbiturates, cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol and nicotine — something school officials say they have had continued issues with.

The district will pay $36 per test.

Parents such as Jennifer West aren’t happy about the new policy. West has two kids in Crete Public Schools: a 9-year-old daughter in the fourth grade and a son who is a junior and drives to school each day.

She’s refusing to sign the required form that would enroll him in randomized drug testing.

“It boils down to kids’ rights,” West said. “And honestly, there's not enough to support that this is a necessary step. To go so far and have such an invasive policy when you already have policies in place.”

A group of concerned parents, including West, rallied at a school board meeting Aug. 14 to voice concerns about the policy. Though the policy had already been passed, the board approved two changes: the removal of testing of band members and unified sports participants.

Students can be drug-tested only for school activities that aren’t taken for a grade, like sports and clubs.

The board has had its sights set on doing something to address what it sees as growing substance use by students for some time now, said Justin Kuntz, board president, despite already having provisions for drug, alcohol and nicotine use in the student handbook.

Kuntz

Last school year, the district had 27 suspensions for substance use at the high school, including 12 for nicotine or nicotine vaping and nine for the vaping of THC or marijuana products. Two others were for alcohol, and a couple of others were drug paraphernalia violations. The school also had two instances of students under the influence of marijuana on school property.

But worst of all, he said, the high school had three instances where a student was taken from school by ambulance to the hospital for being under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

The problem exists at the middle school level, too.

During the 2022-23 school year, Crete had 14 seventh or eighth graders face suspension for substance abuse. Out of those, 11 were for nicotine vaping, and three were for THC or marijuana vaping.

“That was something new, and that was not something we had seen to that extent before,” Kuntz said. “So as a board, it really made us concerned that there may be a bigger issue out there and that it was starting to impact students at a younger age.”

Faculty and staff and board members are not included in the policy because the school hasn’t seen any issues with substance use in these groups, Kuntz said, which is a question several parents raised at the August board meeting.

A majority of the instances with students occurred in either the bathrooms or school parking lot. In the last few years, Crete invested in security cameras that point toward the parking lot in an attempt to curb vaping use there. However, Kuntz doesn’t believe the cameras have truly fulfilled their purpose.

Monitoring cameras and watching and rewatching video can eat away at school principals’ time when they should be focusing on helping students learn and aiding teachers throughout the day, Kuntz said.

“When they are constantly addressing substance abuse issues, having to watch video to find out who went into the bathroom at a certain time and who may have been guilty of using these substances on campus, it is taking them away from what we really want them to be doing,” he said.

High school students who test positive become ineligible for all activities for 10 days or lose access to their school parking passes for 20 days. Middle school students who test positive are ineligible for activities for five days.

The punishments increase with each positive test.

The Fairbury Public Schools and the Beatrice Public Schools both passed student drug-testing policies in 2017. Beatrice is in the process of updating its policy. Fairbury rescinded its policy before the start of the 2022-23 school year, according to Superintendent Sean Malloy. The Lincoln school district does not have a drug-testing policy.

Michaela Conway, a parent and previous Crete graduate, is strongly against the drug testing of students. Her middle school daughter chose not to participate in fall sports because of the new policy.

“They don't need a policy to address this," Conway said. "They need proactive staff and proactive planning and open honest dialogue with their students.”

So far the school district has not seen a notable decrease in student participation since the drug-testing policy was implemented, Kuntz said. Even if they had, he said it would be hard to definitively tie any changes in numbers directly to the policy.

Conway and West are among a group of community members planning to return to every board meeting until they feel their voices are heard.

“If they want the attention of the community, then they've got it,” West said.

West and others say they feel the policy is not intended to prevent students from using substances, but to simply catch them in the act, get them in trouble and scare students who may only be looking to experiment with these substances. Instead, she believes students should be educated on the effects of drug and alcohol use.

“The problem with this policy is it's all reactionary, but it's under the pretense that they're trying to be proactive, while there's nothing proactive about this policy,” West said. “So is this the cure? No, I don't think so.”

But Kuntz disagrees. As the board president, he believes the policy is beneficial to students, providing them with a reason to avoid drugs and alcohol. Most of all, he hopes the policy will make it easier for staff to help students who are using these substances.

“I hope it provides a tool we can use to identify students who may be struggling with these issues and offer them assistance and education in hopes that they can overcome whatever is causing them to use illegal substances at their age,” he said.

A majority of students at Crete are Hispanic, and Conway said she fears there could be bias in who is chosen for testing.

Safe Sport handles everything for the school district, including the pulling of random student ID numbers to be tested. Because of this, Kuntz said he believes the district will be able to avoid any bias.

With the first round of drug tests on the horizon as the school year kicks off, Kuntz said he hopes the community can see the board’s reasoning behind the policy.

“My hope is that, even for the people who may be opposed to this policy, we can keep the dialogue mature, keep it positive, and I hope that people will understand,” he said. “We're always going to try and do what we think is in the best interest of all of our students, and that's why this decision was made.”

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