TRI In The News
Rutherford Backs Breathalyzed County Student
From The Daily Progress
Original article available here.
A local civil liberties group is taking the Albemarle County public schools to task for their use of a police-administered breath test on a tenth-grader accused of drinking alcohol-spiked lemonade, saying administrators made her take the test though they lacked credible evidence.
The school division has responded that the Rutherford Institute doesn't have its facts in order and has backed the Western Albemarle High School administrator in question, while declining to elaborate, citing student confidentiality concerns.
"Albemarle County Public Schools has a duty to provide for the safety of students in our care," wrote schools spokeswoman Maury Brown. "Information related to a student possibly being under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol must be taken seriously by school officials."
The schools and the institute are also at odds over whether there's an unwritten policy on the use of such tests.
A pair of unnamed students accused the sophomore of imbibing the illicit drink, but the test showed she had consumed none, according to a letter institute founder John W. Whitehead sent Tuesday to Pamela Moran, the division superintendent.
The test violated the constitutional rights of both the student and her parents, Whitehead argues, noting the test was run without notifying the parents or allowing them to be present.
The girl's parents had written to the schools about the issue, but received no response until the institute took up the issue, Whitehead said in an interview.
The institute is asking the schools to adopt a policy for the tests that protects the rights of students and parents. In his letter Whitehead offered the institute's help in drafting such a policy. He also asks for a written assurance that the matter will be expunged from the student's record.
Whitehead also included in his letter a reiteration of the family's request for public apologies from both student accusers and the teacher who passed the accusation up the ladder, as well as a formal apology from the administrator who made her take the test.
"Little attention seems to be paid to the impact on students who are taught that they have no rights and who are forced to submit to an all-powerful police state in which they are presumed guilty, as [the student] was," the letter reads.
Whitehead said that a lawyer representing the school district had already contacted him to set up a meeting and that he expects the school district will draft an acceptable policy.
