STUDENTS TO BE TESTED FOR DRUGS

Concerned about what he called a "rampant" youth drug problem, a local
businessman said he mailed a $1,000 check to Mobile County school
Superintendent Harold Dodge to begin drug testing students.

Dodge, who said he had not received the money by Thursday night, said the
school system would either hold but not cash the check or return it, unless
board members direct him to do otherwise.

"We did look at the topic several years ago, and we have questions about
who would pay for it," Dodge said.

Inspired by reports that area private schools such as Mobile's
McGill-Toolen High School and Daphne's Bayside Academy started drug testing
this year, Williams Trane owner Bob Williams said he's convinced public
schools should follow suit.

"The drug problem is a real problem," Williams, a former school board
member, said. He said he hopes other businesses will pledge money to begin
the practice.

Using the hair-test method area private schools have adopted, the exams run
about $45 apiece.

Multiply that by 66,000 students in Mobile public schools, and the cost for
testing every child could start at close to $3 million per year.

School officials spent the last year cutting programs and eliminating
positions to help keep expenses down in the face of continued reluctance on
the part of Mobile County voters to approve tax increases.

Dodge said the last time the board entertained the idea of drug testing
students, it stumbled, among other things, over questions of how
disciplinary action would be taken in the event a child tested positive.

"I'm not saying, 'No.' I'm not saying 'Yes,'" Dodge said about the issue of
drug testing. "I've remained quiet until I can get some answers to those
questions."

Bayside and McGill-Toolen reserved the right to suspend students for
testing positive for drugs on more than one occasion.

While the American Civil Liberties Union has criticized student testing as
being a violation of Fourth Amendment rights, courts have upheld the
practice in public schools.

Mobile's Alabama School of Math and Science, which is overseen by the state
Board of Education, plans to begin testing next year.

Seventy-two percent of area residents polled in a Mobile
Register-University of South Alabama poll conducted in April said they
support the concept of random drug testing in schools.