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Foxborough plan calls for in-school Breathalyzer tests

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 8, 2009 06:36 PM

By Michele Morgan Bolton, Globe Correspondent

FOXBOROUGH -- School officials are planning to battle underage drinking here by not only allowing the use of Breathalyzers at dances and extracurricular events, but by deploying them in school buildings during the regular school day, if there is a suspicion of alcohol use.

Members of the School Committee gave preliminary approval to the plan Monday; a final vote is slated for Oct. 19.

Chaperones and teachers spend too much time trying to discern if students are drinking, said Foxborough High School Principal Jeffrey Theodoss. "A Breathalyzer just becomes a clean way of following through. And if we're wrong? We will apologize," he said.

Last year, the district saw about 12 incidents of underage drinking, both in school and after school, said Theodoss, persuasion enough that something had to be done.

"I have four kids and as a parent, I would be more comfortable knowing this option is available,'' he said.

So would Kathi Meyer, a Plainville activist whose daughter Taylor died a year ago after wandering away from an underage drinking party in Norfolk.

"I would absolutely encourage that," she said. "I can't imagine a parent feeling it was an invasion of privacy."

But Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the plan was a terrible idea. "If you observe a kid who smells of alcohol and is stumbling around, that's probably enough to go on,'' she said.

Breathalyzers only drive kids to use drugs, instead of booze, so they won't get caught. Or they might drive them to go places where they won't be observed by parents, she said.

The Foxborough schools bought two digital alcohol detectors which register a blood-alcohol level almost immediately, officials said. A reading over 0.02 will test positive. Those who refuse the test will be disciplined. Anyone who tests positive must be removed from school or an event by a parent, officials said.

A five-day, out-of-school suspension will result along with a two-week suspension from extracurricular activities.

Harsher measures come the second time around with a 10-day suspension, a hearing before the principal or an expulsion recommendation, they said.

Police Chief Edward O'Leary said the Breathalyzer plan is part of an overall strategy and students will be asked to take it if there are obvious clues they should.

Paula Bishop, the mother of a 10th-grader, sits on Foxborough High's School Council, a group of teachers, students, parents and administrators who discuss school issues. Bishop said her instinct is to support the decision to use the tools at school events.

"When you hear about someone being carted off in an ambulance, that's frightening as a parent,'' she said.

But using them in school? "I'm not so sure about that one,'' she admitted. "I need more time to digest it."