Mooresville school district may implement student drug testing

MOORESVILLE, N.C. — On a daily basis, Any Lab Test Now in south Charlotte tests anything from allergies to blood to drugs and alcohol.

Recently, more and more of those drugs tests have been for young children brought in by their parents.

“They’re distraught and the kid’s mad, I can tell you that. We know when they come in if they’re going to test positive or not, just by their attitudes,” lab owner Lori Van Popering said.

Van Popering said her lab tests 40 children, as young as eigth grade, every quarter. Out of those, she said a dozen or more come back positive.

“There’s a real big problem with black tar heroin. We see that,” Wrench said.

She said other opiates and marijuana are a problem too.

Now more schools are taking action. Mooresville Graded School District is the latest to draft a policy requiring drug tests.

If the policy is passed, it would require students grades 7-12 to sign a policy subjecting them to random drug testing in order to take part in sports, competitive extracurricular activities, and to purchase a parking permit on campus.

District officials told Eyewitness News anchor Blaine Tolison over the phone that their goal is to get to students with a drug problem early in life.

“Really, it was more about, even if there’s a few that we can help then it’s worth it,” Chief Communications Officer Tanae Sump-McLean said.

Some individual schools with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools require drug tests to play sports.

Van Popering said many private and charter schools in Charlotte also require testing, and many parents aren’t fighting it.

“We definitely need them. We as parents, we got to step up. We’re going to have to step up as parents,” parent Barbar Smith said.

The Mooresville graded school district could make changes to its draft policy before presenting a final draft to the school board in April. School leaders hope to have it in place by next school year.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

• CMPD: Neighbor found man shot to death outside east Charlotte home
• Middle school teacher charged after daughter dies from opioid exposure
• 1 killed, 1 injured in head-on crash in Iredell County, troopers say
• WATCH: Vicki Graf's Wednesday forecast outlook
• Union County School Board approves redistricting reversal
• Panthers' McCaffrey helps save life of 72-year-old hiker: 'We were in shock'

Cox Media Group