SHELBY – Penalties for students who participate in extracurricular activities and are involved with drugs or alcohol are changing at Shelby High School.
Principal John Gies explained to the Shelby Board of Education this week that a punishment change was necessary for the 2017-18 High School and Middle School extracurricular handbooks. The change involves two rules regarding the use of drugs and alcohol, and the presence at a gathering where drugs and alcohol are present.
“We decided to keep the rules separate, but we changed the punishment to if you have one violation of either one, the next violation of either rule will mean you automatically go to the ‘second violation’ rule, which is denied participation of one calendar year if you agree to counseling,” Gies said.
The extracurricular handbook currently has rules that prohibit the selling or distribution of drugs or alcohol, the possession, purchase or use of tobacco, alcohol or non-prescribed drugs, and the attendance at gatherings or parties with alcohol and/or drugs.
“Students will not attend gatherings or parties where the consumption of illegal drugs or the illegal consumption of alcohol (i.e., underage drinking) is taking place,” the handbook states. “Students must make a conscientious effort to leave any such party or gathering immediately. Remaining as a bystander at such gathering or party constitutes violation of this rule.”
If students violate either the possession/purchase/use of substances rule, or they are present at a gathering with substances, they are denied participation for 30 percent of their athletic season. After a second violation of either of those rules, the student will be denied participation for one calendar year if they agree to go to counseling and consent to participation in every random drug test for the calendar year.
If a student chooses not to undergo counseling, they are denied participation in extracurricular activities for the remainder of their high school career. If the student continues to follow all rules during a period of removal, they are still considered part of the team and will continue to practice with the team and sit with the team during contests.
However, the student-athlete may not wear a team uniform during the period of denied participation.
“We always felt that our kids are better off being around us and being around their team,” Gies said. “They may have screwed up, but together we can try to help them through that. Under the old training rules, they were kicked to the curb, and that’s tough.”
Previously, the punishments for violating either substance rule were kept separate; under the new rules, violation of either rule will result in an advancement of the degree of punishment.
“It still has some teeth, but we’re looking at trying to help kids,” Gies said. “It’s not a fun time to deal with training rules violations, it’s not pleasant for anyone. But we understand that they’re here for a reason, and we need them. We want our kids to make good decisions.”
Another incentive for students to make good decisions is Shelby’s random drug testing policy, first implemented in the 2015-16 school year. The random drug testing involves all students involved in any extracurricular activity throughout the entire year.
According to Gies, students that now make up the random drug testing pool include athletes, drivers, student council members, theatre members, and students involved in any other extracurricular activity. There is also an option for parents to opt their student into the random drug testing pool if their student is not involved in any activities.
Gies explained on Monday that this past year, there were 321 high school students included in the pool, and 47 middle school students that were opted in by their parents. The pool of high school students represents approximately 53 percent of the student body, including Shelby students who attend Pioneer Career & Technology Center.
“It’s a pretty good number of kids who are in the pool, and what that tells you is a lot of our kids are involved in things, too,” Gies said. “There aren’t too many of those who are just drivers, most are involved in a number of other activities.”
Of the 321 students in the pool, 102 students were tested this past year, representing about a third of the pool. Of the 102 students who were tested, 11 students were tested multiple times by nature of the random drawing.
“I call the drug testing company, set the dates, tell them what we want to test for, and I give them a number of students,” Gies explained. “They email me the names, so I don’t pick them, it’s just whatever they send me. Sometimes you get kids who are duplicates, and that’s the nature of the randomness.”
Students were tested 13 times throughout the 2016-17 school year, meaning multiple tests most months. The test included alcohol screening only five of those times.
“The board set aside $5,000 for testing this year,” Gies said. “For the five-panel test, which we get to determine which drugs are in that five-panel test, that’s $15 per test, and to add alcohol to that is an additional $20. The total we spent this year was $3,285 so we were well under budget, so we’ll look at picking that up next year.”
There were two instances where the initial drug test came back positive, but upon further testing in a lab setting the test was indeed negative. Another student tested positive twice, but after the testing facility called the student’s parents, it was determined that the positive was due to a prescribed medicine.
Overall, only one student tested positive for drugs and was subjected to the extracurricular handbook’s protocol for substance abuse.
“It’s tough to measure the success overall, because when we implemented this, the number one reason was we wanted to give kids a reason to say no,” Gies said. “Just from the information we get from the students, they are very grateful we have it, and I think it works.
“As our kids are active and involved in things, it’s nice to have that little piece to help them make good decisions as they go through life.”
