Marijuana Policy Project

De Pere school board members voted 6-1 Monday night to enact a new drug testing policy next school year. Some fear it oversteps communication they feel should take place in a home.

Last fall, De Pere High School lost one of its athletes when wrestling captain Corey McNeill died from a drug overdose at a house party.

"As every community grapples with students who engage in behavior involving drugs and alcohol, our district is not immune to that behavior. It's not acceptable," Superintendent Benjamin Villarruel said.

The district superintendent says its current code is outdated and needs a change. For almost a year, the De Pere school board has been trying to figure out how to properly revise the code of conduct for students in sports and other activities.

But still, not all board members and parents are on the same page.

"They don't have the right metrics, they don't know the metrics in order to show, is this a positive thing or is this actually to the negative?" Bruce Rose said.

"There's no evidence one way or the other that it'll work," said Jon Paque, the only school board member who voted against the new code. He fears parents will depend on the drug testing policy too much.

"If their child has a drug problem, do not rely on the possibility that he or she may be among the few who are randomly selected. Intervene immediately," Paque said.

But Karen Falck, who is Corey McNeill's mother, said, "This will be just an extra security blanket for us as parents."

She says when students reach high school, there's only so much intervening a parent can do.

"I asked him straight out, 'Were you doing drugs?' He emphatically told me no. But it wasn't just a no, it was a "No, and here's why. No, Mom, I'm not because I'm weightlifting. I can't do all the things that I'm doing at the level I'm doing them if I was doing drugs.'"

Some board members say this new drug testing policy, more than anything else, sends a message to students that alcohol and drug use will not be tolerated. But Falck says, it's so much more than that because it could save someone's life.

"I believe that, yes, he would have had to think twice about what he was doing, and I'm pretty for certain he would have said no."

Student athletes we talked with caught up with after school said they fully support the proposed code.

"People in sports are representing our school, so if they're caught they shouldn't be representing our school in sports," Jill Grewe, a tennis player, said.

"Because they're not going to just take the kids who get straight As, it's probably going to be the more trouble making ones," teammate Kate Brey said.

The school board also unanimously approved Breathalyzer testing at co-curricular activities such as school dances and attending football games.