Summer Ballentine

summer.ballentine@indystar.com

A proposal to randomly drug test Zionsville High School students was delayed for a third time Monday night, highlighting tensions on the School Board and among parents and students divided by the issue.

Zionsville School Board President Jim Longest tabled two options for drug testing programs.

The original plan included suspending students from extracurricular activities if they test positive and requiring they undergo drug treatment in order to re-enter.

Another proposal backed by the Zionsville Student Rights Union would require drug tests for students to participate in after-school activities or students who park at the high school, but positive results only would be reported to parents. Students would face no consequences at school.

"Are we really doing everything we can do before we take this final step of drug testing our kids?" Longest asked after testimony from board members, parents and students both for and against the original plan. "I don't have an answer to that question, but I would like one."

High school Principal Tim East said he's unsure how a delayed vote would affect the proposed rollout date of the program of Aug. 12. The next School Board meeting is Aug. 11.

Although he spoke in support of a random drug testing plan where results are reported only to parents, sophomore Spencer Bures, 15, said any program violates trust between students and administrators.

"This is presuming we're all guilty, and we're all drug users and we have to prove to the administration that we're not," Bures said. "It feels like the school's trying to be my parent."

Others said the threat of addiction and student deaths is worth it.

"If you give my kid a cup, let him pee in it," parent Lori House said. "I have no problem with it whatsoever."

The proposed Zionsville policies follow six fatal overdoses recorded in Boone County in 2012 and 16 in 2013, county Coroner Shon Hough said.

"Anything that makes a school safer is a good thing," said Maj. Aaron Dietz of the Carmel Police Department and Hamilton/Boone County Drug Task. "This can catch a kid who is in trouble or is going to be in trouble."

Zionsville could be one of many Indiana school corporations trying to crack down on drugs by screening students.

The Tippecanoe School Corp. in Lafayette led the way in 1988, winning a legal battle in the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and setting precedent for schools across the state and country.

Students don't have a right to park, shimmy at the prom or play football, said Julie Slavens, staff attorney for the Indiana School Boards Association. Drug testing is voluntary, she said, because students can choose not to participate in those activities. Participating students can be drug tested so long as they're not punished academically if they test positive.

"It's all been upheld as constitutional," said Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana.

Since the Tippecanoe case, random drug testing has expanded to what Slavens estimated is about a half of Indiana schools.

Nearby Noblesville adopted a random drug testing policy more than a decade ago.

Spokeswoman Marnie Cooke said there's no data to show whether the high school saw a drop in drug use after the policy was put in place. She estimated that more than 90 percent of students volunteer for drug testing to participate in after-school activities.

"It's really designed to surface problems," she said. "When we have had occasional things that have come back as a problem, we're made aware of that and make sure we get assistance for that student."

But studies on how effective drug testing is at keeping students off drugs are mixed.

Some tracked drops in recreational drug use. Others, such as a 2013 University of Pennsylvania study, show testing doesn't work.

While school administrators and police say drug testing could curb prescription pill and heroin use among youths, parents spent hours criticizing the policy as an invasion of privacy during a public forum June 9.

The current plans are to drug test students picked randomly from a pool as many as seven times a year.

Each test would cost about $36 per student, and the program's total price tag is estimated to be between $5,000 and $6,500.

Money would come from concession and vending machine revenues.

Contact Star reporter Summer Ballentine at (317) 444-6125. Follow her on Twitter @esballentine.