NBTHS using outside co. for drug testing
Principal wants to ensure confidentiality, reliability of data
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer
The North Brunswick Township School District will now use Sports Safe Testing Services to handle the North Brunswick Township High School's random drug-testing policy.

Sports Safe will confidentially administer lists of chosen students, who will come down anonymously to the nurse's office to have their specimens collected by a certified toxicology specialist. The parents will be notified, and then the samples will be sent to a laboratory in Los Angeles to certified laboratory personnel, ensuring complete confidentiality during the process. A 17-step panel will ensure the reliability and validity of results.

The cost will be less than $5,000 per year from the Student Services budget, according to Superintendent of Schools Brian Zychowski, but the district could look to expand upon that depending on the data received.

A policy has been in place since 2005 stating that any students involved in athletics, extracurricular activities or parking privileges on school grounds can be randomly tested for controlled dangerous substances, alcoholic beverages and medications on a voluntary basis.

This year, high school Principal Brian Brotschul said that about 1,400 of the 1,800 students registered at the school are in the testing pool, and about 10 percent of those students will be tested throughout the year on a weekly basis. He said that involving an outside company ensures higher levels of confidentiality and regulation.

The first failed test will require the student to meet with a student assistance counselor for five sessions and produce a negative test prior to returning to any school activities.

A second failed test will have the student removed from any activities for 60 days, and will require 10 counseling sessions.

A third failed test requires more intense counseling and the suggestion of the family to pursue services outside of the school environment.

Students have the option of opting out of the test, but then they cannot participate in any school activities.

The results will not become part of the student's permanent record, Brotschul said, and there are no suspension or expulsion consequences.

"The goal of the policy and the goal of the program is to be more therapeutic than punitive or disciplinary," he said. "The idea, really, is to educate families about the perils of drug and alcohol use and to ensure that they ultimately stay safe and healthy and achieve everything they want to achieve."

Brotschul said that there are 30 districts in New Jersey that have random test policies, and that 7 to 10 percent of the sample size tests positive for drugs the first time, but that with therapeutic-based policies, there is a drastic decrease in the second offense, which is why the district does not follow a system that enforces punishments.

"I believe strongly in putting students in the position to be successful, and I think the steps we are taking with this policy put us in a position to make a greater impact in the student body," Brotschul said.

"What we're trying to do is continue to educate and to change behavior to validate our mission of producing productive citizens. We certainly are not looking to catch and punish students with this policy," Zychowski said, noting that students must be "held accountable" before experiencing consequences such as a decreased quality of life, or even death. "These things are bad and they don't mesh and they don't serve a purpose, and to be a productive citizen, you can't do both."