By: Las Vegas Now Staff
Random drug testing is soon going to be part of the normal routine at Green Valley High School.
The school's principal says drugs and alcohol have created too many problems at the Henderson school. He is now making it mandatory for all student athletes to be part of a random drug testing.
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The principal of Green Valley High sent out a letter to parents giving them a heads up of what's to come. In the letter, it says it will be mandatory for all student athletes to be part of random drug testing.
Parents whose child is not in sports can also sign a permission slip allowing their child to be tested.
The Green Valley High principal would not talk with us until after he meets with parents Wednesday night.
But according to the school board president, there have been several problems at Green Valley High with drugs over the past several years — especially with student athletes.
According to the school's accountability report, 19 Green Valley High students were caught distributing drugs last year.
Students say it is common for drug deals to go down at school.
School Board President Mary Beth Scow strongly supports the principal's decision to drug test and says it's the first time random testing will take place at a Clark County Public School.
“The kids know there are drugs and I think that's why the administration took this step. They've lost some kids who had great potential, not only in athletics, but in life. Because of drugs, they went down,” said Scow.
There's still no word on when this program will start what the consequences will be for students caught with drugs in their system.
The school board president says she hopes this testing will be a preventative measure to deter kids from drugs altogether.
Some private schools in Clark County already do random drug testing and are happy with the results.
Clark County says if all goes well at this school, testing could be used in other schools as well.
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Why is it to catch the “bad guys” we seem to want to harass and monitor the innocent? If only we had some sort of law on the books to prevent people who are just trying to live their lives from being targeted (Even randomly) from suspicion.
Oh yeah.. we do… the Bill of Rights.
This is just one more example of government trying to undermine our rights while trying to save our “way of life”. And the parents are complicit in helping them to make our kids sheep for future curtailing of rights.
Yup.. proud to be an American in these times…
Comment by Shannon Cooper — January 28, 2008 @ 11:12 am
I have to agree with this, its about time! I also think that it shouldn’t be just the athletes, it should be all groups that are representing the high school…For way to long its been acceptable to cater to the “athletes” and let them slide by because they are the “elite”…what about when they graduate and are introduced to the “real world”…jobs require a drug test, why not prepare them for reality…if this has been an ongoing problem, do what you’ve got to do to get it under control instead of turning a blind eye
Comment by Shannon Thompson — February 19, 2008 @ 10:06 am