Due to strong community opposition, the District 95 Board of Education unofficially decided to drop the drug testing plan.

The plan was not formally dropped, as a formal vote on the plan among Board members still needs to take place, but Board members made the fate of the plan clear at their last Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, November 3.

“The Board isn’t interested in pushing an issue people aren’t interested in,” Kathy Brown, Board of Education President, said in regards to the apparent community opposition.

The Board gathered released the results of the survey they conducted following the October 5 Community Forum on drug testing.  

Of the roughly 1900 people who participated in the survey, results showed 79 percent opposed the program, with 71 percent of the opposed community members saying it is not the school’s responsibility to be drug testing students.

With the release of the recent survey, and the obvious opposition at the community forum, Board members acknowledged that a drug testing plan would not work without the support of the community.

 “We’ve obviously put the community through a lot of angst on the issue,” Board member Doug Goldberg said.

The official vote on the drug testing proposal will take place on November 17.