In 2001 Logan County became the first school system in West Virginia to require drug testing for students involved in extra curricular activities.
Now at least seven counties – Braxton, Cabell, Jackson, Kanawha, Logan, Mineral, and Putnam -- are conducting random drug tests on students involved in extracurricular activities.
Cabell County just completed its first year of testing and school officials say fewer students are using drugs than they originally thought.
A total of 23 students tested positive for drug use at Cabell Midland and Huntington High Schools.
After the first positive test, students must meet with a drug counselor. After a second offense, they are suspended from school and all activities for fourteen days.
Of the 226 students tested at Cabell Midland, 14 results came back positive -- a rate of about 6 percent.
At Huntington High, 160 students were randomly tested, with nine positive results.
Todd Alexander is the administrative assistant for secondary schools and helped come up with the idea of the drug testing.
He says school officials are encouraged by the low numbers compared to anonymous survey results that made them think it would be higher.
“It ended up being like a 5.9 percent positive rate which I think is pretty much the standard,” Alexander said.
Students who may be tested include athletes, those who want to drive to school and students whose parents asked to have them tested.
Alexander says there were 1,141 students in the pool that could have been tested, leaving 2,300 students between the two high schools that couldn’t be tested, because they didn’t meet the criteria.
He says officials are concerned that they aren’t testing the right group. But because of a Supreme Court ruling in 2001, only students taking part in extracurricular activities, students who drive to school or who volunteer can be tested.
Alexander says the only drugs for which any of the students tested positive were alcohol and marijuana. He says they are glad they were able to catch the students before they move on to more dangerous drugs.
“Those are considered to be the gateway drugs and I’m a little bit positive about that,” Alexander said.
Alexander says most parents are appalled when they find out their child has tested positive, but are glad to catch the problem.
“You know first of all they are shocked and then they respond well to it,” Alexander said.
Alexander says the point was to give students another reason to resist peer pressure.
“If they are out on a Saturday night and someone wants them to do this or do that, they can say, ‘No, I can’t, I might get tested Monday and my parents will find out’ or ‘I’m not going to be able to participate in this sport, I’m just not going to take the chance,’” Alexander said.
Alexander says the next step is testing in the county’s five middle schools, set to begin this fall.