Students and their dates will now be tested for alcohol before entering homecoming dance and prom functions sponsored by Argyle High School.
The Argyle school board this week approved the use of sobriety tests at future Argyle High homecoming dances, effective next year.
This comes nearly eight months after the board approved the use of breath tests at prom, 7-0, and more than two weeks after the recent homecoming dance, where school officials said they encountered a student under the influence of alcohol at the dance.
“The breathalyzer administration at prom worked great and the next logical thing was to do it at our other school-sponsored events like the homecoming dance,” said Kevin Faciane, school board president.
“This is just another measure to ensure student safety and enjoyment at school-sponsored events.”
Attendees at the prom and the homecoming dance will be required to exhale in the direction of a sensor that tests their breath for the presence of alcohol.
Students testing positive will be taken aside to receive a sophisticated “deep-lung breath test” to rule out false positives, such as mouthwash, and positively identify those who have been drinking. Students testing positive on the second test will be disciplined.
Superintendent Telena Wright said the action is “a deterrent to the use of alcohol” and “a safety precaution.”
In a memo to the school board, Wright wrote that the homecoming dance is another event “at which student decision-making and safety could be better monitored,” if students are required to be tested for alcohol.
Wright wrote in her memo that breath tests were used successfully at Argyle High’s prom last April.
She said Friday that no students were disciplined for alcohol use at the event.
BRITNEY TABOR can be reached at 940-566-6876. Her e-mail address is btabor@dentonrc.com.
