CHS takes a stand against drugs/alcohol

• Chillicothe High School approved a new comprehensive drug policy for student-athletes, Tuesday.
• The new policy provides a three step program, outlining the consequences of a positive result.
• Chillicothe High School Principal Jeff Fisher called for the community's support as a whole.
• Half of every athletic team of every sports season will be subject to randomized testing.

CHILLICOTHE – At the start of the 2015-16 school year, student-athletes at Chillicothe High School will face a new, comprehensive drug testing policy.

The policy, approved by the school board Tuesday night, has been privately funded for a two year pilot program and entails a three-step system in which consequences will be handed down to students who have a positive drug test.

While many other schools do have drug policies for student-athletes in place, few match this one's level of detail and magnitude.

"I think the biggest difference you'll find with the new drug policy that has now been approved is its comprehensiveness," CHS Principal Jeff Fisher said. "In most instances with Ohio high schools and probably high schools nationally, the problem with most drug policies are two things; funding and it's a controversial subject. Many don't want to attack something like this in a controversial manner and I think the difference with our policy opposed to many others is our intent behind it. That intent is to ensure our student-athletes understand that the use of drugs, alcohol and banned substances is completely unacceptable."

The policy will be carried out by random unannounced urine drug testing and states that 'at the beginning of each sports season, all students wishing to participate may be subject to urine testing for illicit or banned substances.'

Before each athletic season starts, student-athletes will be required to sign a consent agreement that states, 'I understand that when I participate in any athletic program I will be subjected to initial and random urine drug testing, and if I refuse, it will be treated as a positive result.'

Student-athletes will be tested at random as frequently as bi-weekly anytime during a sports season and will be tested for up to 15 different banned substances including marijuana metabolites, alcohol, opiates, amphetamines and MDMA (Ecstasy).

"It's not just a drug test that tests for just one or two drugs because of the cost," Fisher said. "In that sense, a kid could smoke marijuana but if the test only tests for nicotine and alcohol, they pass the test. That's where you find a lot of these, in my opinion, false numbers that come out about student drug testing. You're very naive if you think that you have 500-1,000 high school students and none of them are experimenting with drugs or alcohol. We need to do the best we can to put our student athletes in a place to understand that if they're going to do the wrong things, they're going to be held accountable."

Fisher stressed that the policy has not been put into place so the school can simply catch offenders. The policy also requires students to seek and receive drug treatment or counseling.

"This isn't a 'gotcha' type of thing," he said. "We don't want to catch any of our students using drugs or alcohol. But if they do, our biggest thing is this: we would rather catch a kid from ages 14-18 when they have to deal with ramifications of losing athletic opportunities and teach them a life lesson than to watch them battle addiction at an older age and read about them in the paper going to prison because of the use of an illegal substance or a DUI.

"This community deserves a high school that stands up and says that we recognize a problem and we're going to address it," he continued. "Our hope is that our community turns and looks at us and says that we're doing the right thing."

Chillicothe Police Chief Keith Washburn is first in line to support the policy.

"I support it fully," Washburn said. "It seems like our younger generation is the most at risk with opiate drug use. So this plan is sort of like an early intervention. Anything that helps prevent or deter drug usage by our younger generation, we'll stand behind."

Juvenile Court Judge Jeff Benson added his take.

"I haven't seen the final policy adopted by the district yet but generally, I'm in favor of it," he said. "I see it as an effort by the administration to prevent a future problem before it gets out of hand. I think the benefits outweigh the detriments."

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509

Summary of Procedures in the Event of a Positive Result According to CHS' Drug Policy

First Instance: The student-athlete will be prohibited from participation in all athletic activities indefinitely. If the student-athlete in violation completes a drug/alcohol program provided by the school and follows the program's recommendations, and submits to a follow-up drug test within a month that results in a negative result, the penalty may be reduced to loss of participation in the next 20 percent of scheduled regular season athletic contests.

Second Instance: The student-athlete will forfeit all athletic activities for one calendar year. The mandated completion of a program recommended by a certified substance abuse counselor, and the administration of three follow-up drug tests with negative results will be required for consideration to reinstate the student-athlete's eligibility. If all steps are completed, the consequence may be reduced to the loss of participation in the next 50 percent of the scheduled regular season athletic contests.

Third Instance: The student-athlete will be barred from participation in any athletic activity for the duration of his/her high school career. Potential reinstatement must go through the Building Principal.