Some parents complained about too much drinking at high school dances.

Then, when the school district promised to put in place a screening protocol and sterner penalties for drinking, more parents started complaining that the plan was too tough.

Now, the proposed policy will be back before Lawrence school board members Monday as they take another shot at adopting the plan that centers on testing high school students for alcohol before school-sponsored dances.

“I feel very strongly about this policy. It needs to move forward,” said board member Cindy Yulich.

Others aren’t so sure.

“We have a lot of concerns,” said Milton Scott, chairman of the Free State High School Site Council, noting that parts of the policy seem heavy-handed, inconsistent and unfair.

“But in no way are we condoning (underage) drinking,” Scott said.

Efforts to enact the policy stalled during the board’s Nov. 28 meeting after board members and parents questioned:

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¢ The propriety of preventing a senior who tested positive from participating in commencement;

¢ The fairness of testing for alcohol at dances and not, for example, at football or basketball games;

¢ How long students should be banned from the dances if they test positive at two dances. As proposed, any students – regardless of age – caught a second time would be banned from school-sponsored dances for as long as they are enrolled in the school district.

¢ Whether a junior high student’s slate would be wiped clean of alcohol violations after reaching the ninth grade. As proposed, it would not.

Though discussed at length last month, board members shied from changing the proposal. Instead, the district’s legal counsel, Pete Curran, was asked to tweak some of the text.

“In essence, the board will be considering a more polished version of what it had before,” Curran said.

Overly harsh

School officials began drafting the policy after fielding reports of some students appearing intoxicated during the Free State High School Firestarter Dance in late August.

Scott said he and others on the Free State site council think it’s overly harsh to block a senior caught drinking from taking part in commencement.

“There are other things you can do, like not letting them go to the senior breakfast or the senior picnic,” he said. “But not letting them go to graduation impacts the (student’s) entire family. It seems like we’re singling out what happens at dances for special treatment.”

Former board member Mary Loveland said she may ask the board not to ban students from all dances if they test positive more than once.

“I am totally for testing,” Loveland said. “My only concern is that ‘two strikes and you’re out’ may be a bit much. As a mother, I’ve known a lot of 17-year-olds who weren’t the same people they were when they were 15.”

Loveland said she would recommend one-year bans.

“If you’re in high school, it would be ‘three strikes and you’re out’ instead of two,” she said.

Board procedures call for opening the floor to public comment before rendering a decision. It’s unclear how many – if any – people will speak.

“I’ve had a call from one parent. Other than that, I haven’t heard anything,” said board member Linda Robinson.

Infringed rights?

At the Nov. 28 meeting, Scott Shreders, a Free State senior and a student representative on the board, expressed support for the policy but warned that many students consider testing an infringement on their rights.

As proposed, each high school student entering a dance would be required to breathe on a hand-held monitor that would detect the presence of alcohol. Those who test positive will be given a second test to measure the level of alcohol.

The first test takes only 10 seconds; the second takes 20 to 30 seconds. The process will screen out traces of alcohol from mouthwash and cold medicine.

At junior high dances, testing would be optional.

“That’s not where we’ve had the problem,” Supt. Randy Weseman said.

Students who have been drinking – they do not have to be legally intoxicated – will be banned from school-sponsored dances for a calendar year.

Seniors who drink at or before the last dance of the school year would not be allowed to take part in commencement.

Students caught drinking would not be subject to automatic suspension or expulsion

U.S. Supreme Court rulings, Curran said, have found that students are entitled to an education and are protected from unreasonable searches. Testing for alcohol, he said, is considered a search.

But students are not entitled to extracurricular activities – dances, for example – and may be searched. The district, he said, would open itself to a lawsuit if it denied a a student access to an education based on the results of a search at an extracurricular activity.