Is drug testing in Hilton Head area schools effective? How many students tested positive?
After a three-year hiatus, Beaufort County Schools resumed testing this fall and eligible students are testing positive at similar rates compared to years past. The percentage of positive test results is 3%, which is lower than the 8.33% of 12-to-17-year-olds nationwide who reported using drugs in the last month.
At least one school board member, also a parent, is against the “invasive” practice, which costs the district at least $130,000 a year. Each month hundreds of high school students are pulled from classrooms to be tested for drugs including marijuana, cocaine, opiates and sometimes fentanyl. Those who play sports or participate in other voluntary extracurricular activities, such as robotics and debate clubs, and those with parking permits are eligible to be tested. Other students are not tested under this program.
The district’s high school athletes — who are a sizable number of the Beaufort County school testing population — are already statistically less likely to use drugs than non-athletes, according to a recent National Institute of Health study.
In September and October, 1,844 Beaufort County students met the requirements for the testing program. Of the 564 students Beaufort County Memorial Hospital randomly selected, about 3% tested positive, according to the records obtained from the school district through a Freedom of Information Act request.
This percentage is similar to previous years:
In 2015, 2.5% of students tested positive.
In 2016, 4% of students tested positive.
In 2017, 3.3% of students tested positive.
Testing ended mid-year 2019 due to the pandemic, and schools didn’t test between 2020 and 2022. No public document for 2018 results exists, according to the FOIA request. District spokesperson Candace Bruder said it’s too early for the district to speculate whether students will continue to be drug tested next school year.
As for whether the relatively consistent percentages prove the efficacy of the testing or not: “It’s hard to know,” school board member Ingrid Boatright said. She is opposed to the testing partially because she believes students must give up their right to privacy if they want to participate in extracurricular activities.
A 3% positive test rate is higher than the percentage of 12-to-17-year-olds who reported using cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin, as well as abusing pain relievers, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. This could suggest that drug testing isn’t a deterrent for these drugs.
However, 3% is much lower than the 12.78% of all 12-to-17-year-olds who reported using marijuana in the last year, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. This could suggest that drug testing is a deterrent for marijuana.
“I think probably most of our positive drug tests are marijuana-related, but that doesn’t stay in your system all that long,” Boatright said. In the data provided, the district didn’t break down which drugs students tested positive for. She said it’s also a tricky comparison because they don’t randomly drug test all students.
“It’s hard to know if those drug tests are picking up casual users, for lack of a better term, versus habitual users,” she said. “The habitual users are probably not doing extracurricular (activities).”
Hilton Head and Bluffton High Schools had the highest percentage of students test positive during September and October. No students at Whale Branch Early College or Battery Creek High Schools tested positive.
A refusal to get drug tested results in the same consequences as a positive drug test. The schools don’t notify law enforcement, but students can be made ineligible from extracurricular activities depending on the number of consecutive positive tests and whether they begin treatment.
Battery Creek High School
No students tested positive. Students refused to test 2% of the time.
Students tested — 90
Positive results — 0
Refusals — 2
Beaufort High School
About 4% of students tested positive. Students refused to test about 1% of the time.
Students tested — 80
Positive results — 3
Refusals — 1
Bluffton High School
About 5% of students tested positive. Students didn’t refuse to test.
Students tested — 104
Positive results — 5
Refusals — 0
Hilton Head Island High School
About 5% of students tested positive. Students didn’t refuse to test.
Students tested — 110
Positive results — 6
Refusals — 0
May River High School
About 2% of students tested positive. Students didn’t refuse to test.
Students tested — 110
Positive results — 2
Refusals — 0
Whale Branch Early College High School
No students tested positive. Students didn’t refuse to test.
Students tested — 70
Positive results — 0
Refusals — 0
