Greenwood School District recently approved a random drug testing policy for students who participate in extracurricular activities. Frank C. Newman has been actively opposed to the new policy since it was first proposed by the school board in February. Newman’s grandchildren attend Greenwood schools and he’s concerned that the new policy ignores students’ civil rights. In a landslide vote, only 1 of the 7 Greenwood School District Board Members, James Cox, voted against the new drug policy. The new policy will affect all students interested in participating in extracurricular activities. Newman, a retired United States Customs Agent, says that drug testing in schools is proof that the War on Drugs has gone too far.

“Never in the world could I have imagined that this War on Drugs would have gone so far as to force a 7th grader to pee in a bottle to prove that she is worthy of being in the school band or on the track team,” Newman wrote in a letter to The Times Record in Fort Smith, Arkansas. “The parents in this district should be outraged.”

Newman also pointed out that the concerns of the School Board members for students’ health were incongruent with equally harmful habits such as smoking tobacco, eating junk food and consuming alcohol.

Newman wrote numerous letters to the editor and diligently attended school board meeting to voice his concerns about privacy and students’ rights.

“There seems to be a level of apathy in the parents that is difficult to overcome,” Newman wrote in a letter to Drug Policy Alliance. “They don't seem to comprehend that [drug] testing is a form of creeping infringement into the civil rights of their children.”

Now that the drug testing policy has been approved, the Arkansas activist plans on following its implementation to make sure it doesn’t turn into a program that runs on automatic pilot.

“I addressed the board before they voted to start the testing policy and one of my suggestions was to re-evaluate the program on a yearly basis, rather than allowing it to go on forever, even though it shows few ‘positive' drug test results.”

For more student drug testing and how other parents can oppose it in their schools, see:
Drug Testing Fails Our Youth