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Midway ISD unanimously approves on random drug tests to students with parking permits

Posted at 5:18 PM, Jun 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-19 22:23:37-04

The Midway Independent School District School Board unanimously approved on extending the measures of its current student drug policy on Tuesday.

Currently, Midway High School students participating in extracurricular activities are subject to random drug testing.

Midway ISD wanted to take the policy a step further by including every student with a parking permit attending the high school.

"After everything that's gone on in the nation, after security threats anything along those lines with mental health that we can improve on we're looking to make those improvements," said Midway I.S.D. Public Information Officer Traci Marlin.

According to Midway ISD, the change in policy is only meant to keep students and high school faculty and staff safe.

With the policy now approved, students would be chosen randomly using their student identification numbers. They would be required to submit a urine sample to an authorized third party on behalf of the school district.

Students who fail to submit a clean sample would then have their on-campus parking privileges revoked until they attend a class with a parent and speak with a school counselor.

"The idea is to be able to flag kids that might have issues and help them through those issues not to provide a punishment for them," Marlin said.

According to Midway ISD, the estimated cost for the updated policy is about $5,000, and to administer the test itself is $12 per student.

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