Alexander school board members voted to suspend the school's controversial drug-testing policy for the remainder of 2005 during the November board meeting.
The drug-testing policy, effective last year, required students who participated in athletics or cheerleading or sought a permit to park in the school parking lot to undergo a urine test for drug and alcohol use.
The move was approved 4-1 by school board members to avoid a lawsuit over a possible violation of the open meetings state law that might have occurred during the creation of the policy.
Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren recommended the school board suspend the policy in order to avoid a possible lawsuit from a group of discontented parents.
A board member was on the committee that was researching the drug-testing policy and because this committee was dealing in a legislative function
the meetings needed to be open to the public Warren said.
The debate lies in whether the committee is interpreted as a board-appointed committee or as a committee-advising panel, said Alexander Superintendent Robert Bray. Ohio's Sunshine Laws, which include open meetings, state that citizens must be able to observe the operations of their representative government. The laws require public bodies to take official action and to conduct deliberations concerning official business in open meetings. A board-appointed committee would have to adhere to the Sunshine Laws, Bray said.
The question is whether the board committed a Sunshine Law violation he said. The parents felt like they needed more input on the meetings so that they could participate.
The unofficial committee created by Bray to research the policy included one board member, Dave Kasler, which qualifies the committee as a board committee. A board committee is subject to the state's open meetings law. Bray said school board attorneys from Bricker & Eckler LLP, a Columbus-based law firm, did not think the committee violated the Sunshine Laws, but after questions were raised, Bray changed his mind.
Now that the policy has been suspended the board cannot be sued, Warren said.
The drug-testing policy was used for three months during the fall, but Bray said it was too early to tell what results the policy had on students.
During the Nov. 8 elections, two board members who had voted to adopt the drug-testing policy, Synthia Clary and Steve Thomas, were replaced by Gordon Brooks and Mike Chapman. Fred Davis, an incumbent and the only board member who had voted against the policy, was kept on to the school board, pulling the most votes of any of the six candidates running in the election.
I felt that we shouldn't be spending public money on just a few kids when all kids need to be addressed on the perils of drugs and alcohol
Davis said. I also think that when kids are making these decisions (to abuse drugs and alcohol) that parents have the right to be a part of the solution.
This month the new school board members, Brooks and Chapman, will be seated, and the policy will be looked at again during the January board meeting. The board must have a two-thirds vote to reinstate the drug-testing policy.
If board members reinstate the drug-testing policy, Davis would like to see the policy be developed through community members, parents, administrators and students.
During the Alexander school board meeting Thursday, Bray will make a recommendation to the board concerning a drug-testing policy.
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