The Bethlehem Area School Board may soon require randomly selected students and their guests to be tested for alcohol consumption upon entering a school dance.
The idea is simple. Choosing every 10th student for a breath test — or using another selection process to randomly sample those arriving at a dance — would deter kids from drinking beforehand, school officials believe.
The district would use a trained employee to conduct the test, which is less intrusive than a breath test used by police with suspected drunken drivers, Superintendent Joseph Roy said.
If a student flunks the test, his or her parents would be notified, and police could be called in, Roy said. He hopes to have the testing in place for proms at Liberty and Freedom high schools. The district will still be able to test anyone who appears to have been drinking.
What do you think? Is this a good preventative measure — or an infringement of students’ privacy rights? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comments section.
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