The Zionsville C.A.R.E.S.® Campaign

(Community Action for Responsibility and Education against Substance-Abuse

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The overall well-being of the students of Zionsville Community Schools is a top priority for the ZSRU.  The Union is committed to protecting all aspects of this well-being, among these being health, human rights, and civil liberties. 

Drug abuse and addiction are very real dangers facing youth in today’s society.  The ZSRU believes that the best way to protect young people from these potential dangers is to give them the information necessary to protect themselves.  Accordingly, schools aiming to curb possible community drug problems should focus their efforts within the scope of their original duty: education.

Some are of the opinion that in order to protect students from drug-related danger, schools must stoop to random, suspicion-less drug testing.  This is quite simply not the case.  Random student drug testing (RSDT) is undignified, extremely costly, and ultimately ineffective.

RSDT is not only be less effective during school-age years, but it leaves former students dangerously uneducated and set with a “now that no one is watching over my shoulder...” attitude that may very well sway them towards drug abuse. Instead of relying on a reactionary, policing-based strategy, schools and communities have the opportunity to be proactive and appeal to students’ sense of reason, giving them the knowledge they need to combat any pressure towards dangerous substance abuse they might face--not only for the present, but for their entire lives.

Schools wield immense potential influence in deterring dangerous drug abuse without lowering itself to simplistic and persecutory scare tactics.  The taxpayer dollars that would be wasted on expensive and cumbersome RSDT programs can instead be spent on  comprehensive, candid, and unbiased drug education, combined with the offering of free counseling from an addiction professional with full confidentiality.

Studies Condemning Student Drug Testing:

  1. ‣Relationship Between Student Illicit Drug Use and Student Drug-Testing Policies

  2. ‣Drug Testing in Schools: Policies, Practices, and Association with Student Drug Use

(Both by: Ryoko Yamaguichi, Ph.D., Lloyd D. Johnston, Ph.D., and Patrick M. O’Malley, Ph.D. of the University of Michigan)

  1. ‣Making Sense of Student Drug Testing: Why Educators Are Saying No

(By: J. Kern, F. Gunja, A. Cox, M. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., J. Appel, J.D., and A. Verma of the Drug Policy Alliance/ACLU Drug Reform Project)

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Timeline of Activity

  1. ‣Present: ZSRU leadership continues to move forward with the Zionsville C.A.R.E.S Campaign (Community Action for Responsibility and Education against Substance-Abuse ), formerly known as Knowledge Beats Fear, and gather resources to implement the strategies discussed in the May 12th meeting.

  2. ‣May 12, 2009:  ZSRU leadership meets with Chief Rick Dowden to discuss his federal grant proposal initially voiced at the April 30 Town Hall meeting.  Meeting goes very well, and the group leaves with a plan to implement a two-pronged program, based in education and in rehabilitation, that will promote responsibility in decision-making with regard to substance abuse.

  3. ‣April 30, 2009: ZSRU leadership in cooperation with SADD conduct a Town Hall meeting to evaluate the extent of student drug abuse in the community and discuss implementation of effective, education-based solutions.  Steve Ross presents findings on RSDT and comprehensive drug education, generating productive discussion revolving around education/awareness, with a general consensus against RSDT.  Chief of Police Rick Dowden suggests using federal grant money to create a voluntary counseling program coupled with education for both students and parents.  The meeting is an overall definitive success.

  4. ‣April 19-20, 2009: Miscommunications regarding SADD’s position on random student drug testing are corrected.  It is ascertained that most SADD members do not support implementing such a policy.  ZSRU and SADD leadership agree to move forward with a cooperative effort to discuss education-based options for drug abuse prevention

  5. ‣April 13, 2009:  Ross, Campi, and Mellencamp of the ZSRU Board and SADD President Molly Mildenburg meet with Asst. Principal Mr. Greg Hall to discuss the format for a Town Hall discussion on student drug abuse.  The ZSRU once again offers the “olive branch” of an education-based approach to drugs, but SADD’s President elects at that point to go forward with a debate.

  6. ‣March 4, 2009: ZSRU leadership meets with SADD to offer a cooperative plan advocating comprehensive drug education/counseling programs, in order to avoid the unnecessary and ultimately unproductive divisiveness their random drug testing proposals would incite.


Supervised by: The office of the chairman