FINDING A LOGICAL SOLUTION FOR SCHOOL DRUG TESTING

For at least 45 days, a public school's plan to tests all students for drug
use by testing hair clippings has been sidelined. Perhaps that 45-day
window will give time to answer some valid questions raised about the drug
testing policy.

The American Civil Liberties Union has questioned drug testing at the
Alabama School of Mathematics and Sciences, a school for high achieving
academic students in 10- to 12th-grades who choose to live at the Mobile
campus while attending classes.

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, says he will ask Gov. Don Siegelman to
kill a proposed contract with a testing company because hair testing is
racially discriminatory. Tests show that "people with coarse and thick
hair" sometimes test positive for drug use whether they have used drugs or not.

Others question whether urine testing would be less expensive and whether
all teachers should be tested as well. A school spokesman knows of no cost
comparison for urine testing. This 45-day delay by the Legislature's
Contract Review Committee should give plenty of time to do some comparison
shopping and to investigate the reliability of hair testing.

The testing contract the committee delayed is with Psychemedics Corp. of
Culver City, Calif., and will cost the state $22,500 for three years.
That's only one-third of the cost of the testing. The school's foundation
money will supply the other two-thirds.

When it comes to civil rights concerns, drug testing at this school may be
less controversial than at the local school district's high school. State
law requires students to go to public school unless they attend private
school or have arrangements to be home-schooled.

But attendance at the School of Mathematics and Sciences is based on
selective achievement and student and parental agreement that students will
live on campus.

It is closer to the drug testing now required in some public schools for
participation in extra curricular activities like athletics.

The legislative panel cannot kill the drug-testing contract on its own. It
can only delay it for 45 days.

That time should be used to answer the questions raised about the testing
plan's costs and credibility. With those answers in hand, lawmakers, state
and school officials can better debate whether the plan should be condemned.