Students who refuse to take a drug test will now be deemed as an assumed positive report.
At its Nov. 15 meeting, Eastern Regional Board of Education members discussed revisions to the discipline portion of the student handbook regarding drug use.
Due to the recent surge in vaping among adolescents, the board has implemented a new protocol that if a student refuses to take a drug test, the report is assumed positive. Refusal to submit to a drug screen and medical evaluation will concurrently lead to a four-day suspension.
Superintendent Harold Melleby and Principal Robert Tull expressed the necessity to move forward with the rule after a significant number of vaping incidents occurred among Eastern students.
This amendment also comes on the heels of New Jersey’s recent ruling in raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21.
Under the new protocols, the use of tobacco products or vaping paraphernalia on school property or buses will automatically lead to a three-day suspension on the first offense. Along with a parent contact, the student will receive a school resource officer/police contact.
By a third offense of using such substances, the student will receive a superintendent’s hearing.
The possession of these products on school property, including trafficking or selling to other students, will also lead to a three-day suspension followed by a parent conference after the first offense.
Substance abuse incidents are considered cumulative in nature and carry over each year while in attendance at Eastern Regional High School, according to the handbook.
“Essentially what we’re looking to do is this — is to remove (vaping) from our school community,” Tull said. “Kids freely utilize this device thinking there is no harm whatsoever … we want to make sure kids are safe.”
Aside from tobacco, concentrated nicotine, marijuana, synthetic marijuana and other substances can be inhaled through vapes.
In other news:
• Eastern qualified as a “high performing district,” waiving the school from the full QSAC review. Due to its superior status, the district will not have have to receive a full QSAC review for the next three years.
• The school is adding new courses for the 2018–2019 handbook, including AP Seminar, Holocaust, Genocide and Crimes, Applied Statistics, and a lifestyle fitness course.
The courses will not require new staffing.
• Two HIB reports were investigated since the last BOE meeting, but neither one was confirmed.
• Senior Justin Choi was honored as Scholar of the Month for November. Choi carries a scope of AP and honor courses. He’s a member of the varsity golf team, debate team, math league, student council, National Honor Society and more. He has worked at the robotics lab at the University of Pennsylvania. Aside from clinching a host of academic awards, he is the lead singer and guitarist at his church. Choi aspires to be an engineer.
