By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Some 325 Moapa Valley High School (MVHS) students will participate this spring in the first ever drug testing program in a Nevada public school financed by the Adelson Clinic, a non-profit substance abuse facility in Las Vegas.

The parents of the participating students, which includes all 250 kids involved in MVHS athletics, have opted into the drug testing program, said Hal Mortensen, assistant principal. Those involved represent just over 61 percent of the 530 students in the school.

Mortensen stressed that only those students whose parents said yes to participation will be tested for drugs and/or alcohol — “and a parent can opt in or out of the program at any time.” A student whose parents said no to participation or who failed to return the survey will not be tested.

The effort to get the program started in Moapa Valley began in October when parents of the 530 students at MVHS were surveyed asking if they would like the school to partner with Adelson Clinic to initiate a drug testing program.

Paul Schiffman, a member of the Adelson Clinic board of directors and head of the Adelson Educational Campus, said at the time that the clinic had approached several Nevada high schools to offer the free drug program, but only MVHS expressed an interest.

“The whole purpose of the drug testing program is to save lives,” Schiffman said in October. “I’ve attended too many funerals for young people who died because of drugs. We’re prepared to reach out to kids, we’re prepared to do anything we can to save a kid and if we save just one life it’s worth the money.”

Initially, Adelson officials stipulated that at least 80 percent of the parents of all MVHS students had to opt in to participate in the program, but that number was later lowered to 80 percent of responding parents.

Of the 530 surveys sent out, only 229 or 56 percent responded. Of those, 32 parents, 14 percent, said no, they didn’t want to participate, while 197, or 86 percent, said yes they wanted their child to be tested for drugs. Mortensen explained that because the number of responding parents who wanted to participate was over 80 percent, Adelson decided to begin the three-year free testing program this year.

“When you add in the 250 kids involved in athletics who are automatically included in any drug testing at the school, then subtract those names that appear on both lists, you get the 325 who are going to be tested,” Mortensen said.

“Essentially, the Adelson Clinic is donating $10,000 a year for three years to conduct the testing program,” said Mortensen, who is heading the MVHS program and will be the liaison with Adelson.

The money will pay for Adelson staff to collect urine samples from students, transport the samples, test them for the presence of drugs and/or alcohol and then report the findings, Mortensen said.

He explained that participating students will be assigned a number anonymously and all testing and reporting will be done under the number not a student’s name.

“We want to be as unobtrusive as possible and we’re trying to keep everything completely confidential,” Mortensen said.

Only the assistant principal will have the link between a particular student and the student’s drug test number and results.

“The way it will work is Adelson staff will come to the school and collect a urine sample from each student participating in the program,” Mortensen said. “The sample, which will only be identifiable by a number, will then be sent to Las Vegas for testing. The test results will then be returned to me at the school.”

The drug test is designed to identify any type of drug in a student’s system – opiates, prescriptions, alcohol, barbiturates, heroin and others, Mortensen said.

“If a kid tests positive for a drug, I’ll call the parents and student in for a conference,” he said. “There will be no disciplinary action as long as the student isn’t an athlete. For kids involved in athletics, there is a proscribed penalty by the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association for a first, second and third offense.”

Mortensen said his office would automatically recommend counseling and Adelson has offered to provide assistance to ensure counseling is made available to those who cannot afford it.

“If the drug in a student’s system is a medication prescribed to the student, parents will get a precautionary notification,” Mortensen said. “We encourage parents and students to notify the school nurse in advance for any long-term prescription use.”

“The goal of the program is to offer help to local students who may be using and/or abusing drugs,” Mortensen said. “There will only be the one test this year, but in subsequent years participating students will be randomly tested three times per school year.”

MVHS athletes are held to a higher standard than other students. They have agreed not to use drugs during their high school years and if they are found with drugs or alcohol in their systems there is a penalty involved.

Basically, for the first offense an athlete can be barred from participating in sports for two to four weeks, Mortensen said. A second offense means a 90-day suspension from sports and a third offense makes the student ineligible to participate in any school athletics for the rest of the student’s time in high school.