Drug testing has always been implemented at Cathedral. While drug testing is not mandatory for schools, Cathedral implements this to ensure the wellbeing of their students. Mr. Ed Freije, Dean of students, said, “It’s meant to be preventative, so that students and families know that we do tests. Hopefully, that prevents students from going down that road.”
However, due to the Covid-19 epidemic at the start of the 2020-2021 school year, drug testing came to a halt. Cathedral administration attempted to resume drug testing but ran into some setbacks.
Freije, said, “Covid-19 put a little bit of a halt on drug testing, and then we got it back up and going for a short period of time. The company we were using no longer continued working with schools, and so it tapered off.”
This year, Mr. Freije, got a contract with another drug testing company which allows for testing to resume. Testing is spread out throughout the year, usually testing between 10 to 20 students per visit. Students called upon to submit to drug testing are chosen randomly.
“We provide a third party with our students I.D. numbers and then those are then shuffled and selected randomly by the company to provide us with the random list” said Mr. Freije.
If a student tests positive on their first drug test, their parents will be called, they are retested in 20 days, with this time the cost being on student and family, and have to talk to their school counselor in the future. If the student tests positive a second time, their parents will be notified, they will have to attend a disciplinary hearing, are suspended, be evaluated for substance abuse by a facility, and miss 25% of competition season.
Additionally, the student will need to provide proof of treatment by facility in order to return to school. If these preventative measures do not work, and the student tests positive a third time, the student faces withdrawal from Cathedral. The student’s parents will be notified, there is another suspension, must have proof of an evaluation and verification of therapy, and they are not allowed to play sports or participate in competitions for a year.
“Review the policy and what we do and why we do it. I think that it would be beneficial to everyone to understand a little more about the random drug testing policy. The first positive brings awareness to the student and to their family and help provide support that is needed” said Mr. Freije.
