HOLDEN, Mo. -- A small-town Missouri school district is moving forward with a controversial program to weed drugs out of its schools.

The Holden School District's new drug policy applies only to students who want to participate in extracurricular activities, such as sports, band and other clubs. The students in grades seven through 12 must submit to random drug testing, officials said.

KMBC's Dan Weinbaum reported that the school board passed the new rule earlier this week.

Buck and Linda Reynolds have a child who attends Holden High School, and they said they are upset about the rule. They said it presumes guilt before innocence.

"The kids who are in these (activities) have kept good grades, not gotten into trouble -- they're not the ones we should be after," Buck Reynolds said.

"Police officers have to have probable cause before they do things like that. Why shouldn't the school have probable cause before they take issues?" Linda Reynolds said.

"Ideally, you'd love to test all your students," Superintendent Scott Slava said.

However, Slava said testing all students would violate the Fourth Amendment, which is freedom from government intrusion.

"Because this is extracurricular and they choose to do more, you have the ability to restrict in greater means," Slava said

The superintendent said there were 17 incidents last year involving students and drugs. Slava said random drug testing is a way to slow down drug use among children.

"We want to make sure we don't go down that road. Seemed like we were picking up steam and we want to head it off at the pass, so to speak," Slava said. "We feel this is one more tool. It won't solve all the drug issues in your school system, it's just one more piece to the puzzle."

Slava said between 15 and 20 children in the middle and high school would be randomly selected for drug testing every month.

If parents don't sign a consent form to allow their children to be randomly tested, the students cannot participate in extracurricular activities, whether they have used drugs or not.