COUNCIL MEMBER ON DRUG PANEL

Hartselle committee to develop policy for testing students

HARTSELLE -- Councilman Frank Jones will represent the city on a committee
that will develop a drug-testing policy for the school system. He is one of
13 members who will determine which students in extracurricular activities
will be tested and what the punishment will be for a positive test.

Councilmen Don Hall and Tom Chappell did not support the City Council's
recommendation to place Jones on the committee.

Hall said the city's representative should be a councilman with a child in
school.

"This way the individual would have to adopt something that he may have to
live with down the road," Hall said.

Chappell and Allen Stoner are the only council members with children in the
Hartselle school system. Stoner declined to serve on the committee, but
Chappell applied.

Committee Chairman Susan Hayes has not set a date for the first meeting,
but Superintendent Lee Hartsell said it may be next week.

Mrs. Hayes is assistant principal at Hartselle High School.

Other committee members include school board Chairman Susan Puckett;
Hartselle coaches Christy Ferguson and Johnny Berry; high school teacher
Judy Praytor; community volunteer Cleo Stubbs; Lt. Tom Sparks of the
Hartselle Police Department; band parent Greg Dobbs; cheerleader parent Pam
Byford; athletic parent Barry Hamilton; and students Juan Ward and Amanda
Munger.

The committee will not finalize the policy until the U.S. Supreme Court
rules in a case involving student drug testing in Oklahoma.

One of the issues in the case is whether public schools can require drug
tests of all students in extracurricular activities, even if they are not
suspected of drug use.

The plaintiffs' claim that testing without suspected drug use violates the
student's Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches.
Another question in the case is whether the schools' interest in protecting
students and eliminating drug use overrides student privacy.

Hartsell is concerned about the financial impact drug testing could have on
the system, especially if Hartselle follows the policy Limestone County uses.

The Limestone system tests all athletes at the beginning of each sport
season, but the students are subject to random tests. The Limestone school
system budgets $50,000 for the drug-testing program.

Between 500 and 600 Hartselle students participate in extra-curricular
activities.