THOMASVILLE — Thomasville City Schools is getting closer to adopting drug testing guidelines for its students engaged in interscholastic activities. 

The system’s facilities and athletic committees discussed the first reading of the policy, which officials say is designed to be preventive rather than punitive. 

The committee that drew up the proposal included parents, Superintendent Dr. Laine Reichert said. 

“I haven’t heard any negative comments,” she said of the policy. “But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

Under the guidelines, a first failed test results in counseling and being automatically put into the pool of students to be tested. A second failed test will result in the student sitting out 20 percent of their season.

For a third failed test, the penalty is having to sit out an entire calendar year.

“The guidance the committee gave is you’re not looking at this from a penal standpoint,” said school board member John Everett. “You’re looking at it from a deterrence standpoint. It’s got a learning component in the first strike.”

Everett said the policy gives the system conformity and consistency.

“Our objective is to be uniform from the top down,” said THS athletic director Chris Merritt.

Coaches would give a third party the roster from their sport for the previous year and the current year. Students would be chosen at random from the rosters. The tests also will be random and the proposal is to conduct tests on 10 students each time, with three testing periods during the scholastic year for up to 30 students a year.

Any student in athletics or interscholastic activities would be given the policy to sign. Under the proposal, parents can opt to have their child taken to an approved testing facility for under follicle testing at the parents’ costs.