Henderson County Schools have begun random drug testing of some students this academic year.
The random drug testing started this month at Henderson County High School, North Middle School and South Middle School. It applies to students in athletics and other extracurricular activities at those schools. Random drug testing is also for high school students who apply for a parking permit and anyone else opted in by their parents.
Megan Mortis is a spokeswoman for Henderson County Schools. She says the drug testing is confidential, with students identified by numbers.
“We are working with a private corporation that generates a random number of participants, 10 from the high school, three from North Middle and three from South Middle, that would be randomly selected every week. It is on random days and at random times.”
Mortis says about 500 high school students and 300 middle school students are in the pool of students to be tested. The district has a total of 3,600 middle and high school students.
A positive test result will affect only extracurricular activities or driving privileges, not academic status. The district will offer counseling to students and parents in the case of positive test results.
The school district already does random drug testing of 25 employees each month, in addition to random drug testing of all bus drivers.
