KERRVILLE, Texas – Parents of students enrolled in the Kerrville Independent School District had mixed feelings about a proposal to conduct random drug and alcohol tests on students in extracurricular groups and students seeking a parking permit.
Parents were given the opportunity to weigh in at a meeting at Kerrville-Tivy High School on Tuesday. While some parents and community members were in favor of the measure, others called it invasive.
"The goal of student drug testing is prevention, not punishment,” a document sent to parents said.
The document stated that the program was intended to be a deterrent to the use of illegal drugs, and to offer students a credible means to resist peer pressure.
"With weed being legalized in a lot of states, a lot of kids younger and younger are starting to do it," one person who attended the meeting said. "If they want to do extracurricular or park on campus, they should be drug tested."
Another Kerrville resident said the measure was for the best.
"(Students) should be clean and sober and be a good example for everybody else," the person said.
Kerrville residents who oppose the of the measure said it should be enforced for sports, but not for those seeking parking permits.
"it is invasive," one person said. "No reason to just drug test a kid."