In their fight against drug abuse, the Hempfield Area School District will provide drug testing kits to sixth- and seventh-grade parents. Together with the non-profit organization Candle Inc., the school district’s drug testing project is voluntary and will not be made mandatory for parents and students of the school community.
Parents who want to take part in the initiative will get a packet that contains a test kit. They will also be enrolled in a random notification service for the whole year. The service group will be responsible in setting test times without the parent or the student anticipating the chosen day.
Middle school parents were especially chosen as sixth and seventh grade students enter a new phase in their academic life which exposes them to new set-ups and more people.
Hempfield School Board President Randy Stoner says the school is doing its best to help fight drug addiction among kids. “The school is going as far as we can possibly go. From there I think it lies in the parents. We’re only making the drug tests available to our parents and our students and it’s strictly of their own will. It’s voluntarily.”
Sixth grade parents can sign up for the program during school orientations scheduled this week. Seventh grade parents can enroll during the open house in September. The kits are capable of testing up to 10 types of drugs and when a student fails a test, only parents will be notified.
Executive Director for Candle Inc. Norma Norris imparts important information with regards to the drug test program. For some, the school’s action may be too much, but parents need to know that it is actually needed now. “The average age for experimenting with prescription drugs is now age 13, and every day 2,500 teens will abuse these drugs for the first time.”
Tags: Hempfield drug test, school drug test, student drug test
#1 by John P. Slevin on August 20th, 2011
Stoner to test Hempfield for drugs!
The absurdity of this lies not only in the ironically named school board president, Randy Stonter and the community of Hempfield.
However, those names and this subject certainly will draw some chuckles.
Why do some feel it is necessary to give parents this “assist”?
Parents already can choose to have their children tested for drugs. They don’t need a school program to do this. They don’t need a school administrator aligned non-profit organization, Candle.
Teach the children to read and write and show by example that personal relationships, like that between parents and children need not include school administrators at every step…and certainly it shouldn’t involve school administrators who are on a very questionable crusade.