BALDWIN TO EXPAND STUDENT DRUG TESTS

Sophomore Josh Reeves arrived at Gulf Shores High on a routine morning
and was quickly summoned to the office.

Once there, Reeves learned he must immediately provide a urine sample
as part of the school's random drug-testing policy. Reeves -- a
fullback on the Dolphins' football team and an infielder on the
baseball team -- stepped into the restroom and returned to class
minutes later.

"I like it because it keeps everybody straight," Reeves said of the
testing procedure. "It really didn't matter to me. The kids that don't
do drugs don't care about it, because they know they're not going to
get into trouble. The kids that do do drugs, they don't like it
because they will get in trouble."

Thousands of Baldwin County students like Reeves will have another
reason to "just say no" beginning this month, when the Baldwin school
board expands its random drug-testing policy.

The board introduced the program at Gulf Shores Middle and High
schools in February last year, and will extend testing to the county's
other six high schools when classes resume Monday and then to all
middle schools in January 2008.

Students who participate in extracurricular activities -- everything
from football to band to the debate team -- and high school students
who drive to school must submit to the random drug-screening process.
Parents may also volunteer their children for the testing, even if
they do not drive or join part in extracurriculars.

After the first positive drug test, students cannot drive to school or
participate in extracurricular activities for 30 days, and will be
required to attend drug counseling. A second positive test suspends
driving and extracurricular privileges for 40 days, and a third
positive test extends the suspension to a year and requires extensive
counseling.

Students who test positive are not suspended from school or expelled,
and their academic records are not tarnished, according to school officials.

Gulf Shores High Principal Eddie Tyler said that most parents and
students at his school have embraced the testing.

"It's supporting young people in a really tough time of life," Tyler
said. "Growing up nowadays is tough, with all the issues young people
deal with. It's hard to do the right thing. It's easy to do the wrong
thing.

"This policy lends support for students to have a reason when peer
pressure is tough, when they're at that party," he continued. "If
volleyball, if track, if band, if being an officer in student
government is really important, it gives them a chance to say, 'No,
drugs are not for me.'"

School systems are prohibited by federal guidelines from randomly
testing all students, but can require those in voluntary activities,
such as driving or athletics, to submit to testing, officials said.

Numerous school systems in Alabama perform random tests, and Baldwin
County is one of the largest to have a testing program. The cost of
testing -- at least $25 per test -- prevents some systems from
conducting drug screenings, said Brooke Thorington, a state school
board spokeswoman.

State Superintendent Joe Morton "supports the idea of drug-free
education, but for testing, he leaves that up to local education
agencies," Thorington said.

The Mobile County school board does not have a countywide drug testing
policy, although a pilot program for baseball players at Mary G.
Montgomery High was set up with help from former Sheriff Jack Tillman.
The Mobile County board discussed a student drug testing procedure
several years ago, spokeswoman Nancy Pierce said, but the issue died
when a board member objected to it unless teachers were also tested.

Some private schools in the area, including St. Paul's and
McGill-Toolen in Mobile and Bayside Academy in Daphne, test students
through hair samples.

By comparing student drug-use surveys from 2004-05 and 2005-06, Gulf
Shores officials found a 14.7 percent decrease in marijuana smoking,
as well as reductions in alcohol and tobacco use, since testing began.

Chuck Ash, chief executive officer of EDPM Drug Testing -- the
Birmingham-based firm that administers Baldwin County's program --
said his company conducted about 6,400 tests last year for school
systems in Alabama. Only 74 tests -- 1.2 percent -- came back positive.

In Gulf Shores, six students have tested positive of 125 tested at
random since February, Ash said.

Ash pointed to a 2001 Ball State University study that examined the
effect of random drug testing in 84 Indiana public school districts.
When a court order halted the tests in 2000-01, drug and alcohol abuse
soared because students were no longer afraid of getting caught,
according to the study conducted by Joseph R. McKinney, an educational
leadership professor at Ball State.

"Is drug testing effective? You're darn right it is," Ash
said.

The goal of random testing is deterring students from experimenting
with drugs and alcohol, officials said, rather than catching users or
aiding police in making arrests.

"This is a program that we honestly feel gives students an opportunity
to say 'no' when peer pressure gets the best of them," said Chuck
Anderson, the county school athletics director and drug-testing
coordinator. "If it helps one young person in this county to say 'no'
to drugs, then we've succeeded in what we're trying to do. This is not
a 'gotcha' program."

The Baldwin school system has budgeted $110,000 for drug testing for
this year, said system spokesman Terry Wilhite. That figure will
likely rise when middle school students are added to the screening
process in 2008.

Students may be tested for alcohol, amphetamines, methamphetamines,
cannabinoids, cocaine, opiates, phencyclidine, barbiturates,
benzodiazepines, methadone, methaqualone and propoxyphene, according
to the policy -- at a cost of $41 per test.

The testing in Gulf Shores has cost $5,873 thus far.

Steroids could be added to the testing lineup in the future, despite a
single steroid screening costing $110.

Ash added that specific tests are needed to detect the specific
steroid that has been ingested, which can complicate matters.

Each student is given a unique, computer-generated number that is
different from his Social Security number -- a safeguard that
Assistant Superintendent Terry Knight said is intended to guard
against identity theft.

A computer program at EDPM Drug Testing randomly selects the
numbers.

The student's unique number -- not the student's name -- is attached
to the sample. "No one at the lab knows the identity of the urine
sample," Ash said.

Ash said urine samples are the most reliable form of drug testing, as
opposed to blood tests or hair samples.

Students being tested go into a restroom stall and provide a urine
sample, Ash said, and a trained technician then takes the specimen.

The urine is then divided and sealed into an A sample and a B sample.
The A sample is sent to one of 61 federally approved labs for the drug
screening. Ash said that the gas chromotography/mass spectrometry test
used to confirm results is accurate in its findings to one in 10 million.

If a test comes back positive, the student's parent is contacted. The
student is not affected by a positive result if he is taking
over-the-counter or prescription medication that explains the test
outcome.

If a parent disputes the positive test, the B sample will be sent to a
separate lab and tested with the same meticulous method.

"This is designed to give the student maximum protection," Ash
said.

Drug-testing records are not attached to the student's academic
transcript, and are destroyed when the student graduates, Knight said.

"We shred all of those records, and all that will be erased from the
computer bank once they leave high school," he said. "It doesn't
affect their grades in any way. The only thing it will affect is their
extracurricular activities and driving. ... Law enforcement will not
be involved in any way."

School and drug-testing officials pledge to keep results confidential,
but Ash conceded that "most, if not all, students would like to avoid
being rumored as the 'one' who tested positive."

Students who decline the testing process forfeit the privilege to
drive and participate in extracurricular activities, including all
sports.

Tyler said a handful of students did this at Gulf Shores High in
February, calling drug testing an invasion of privacy. Other than
that, he said, there has been little opposition.

"There's been no negative comments to me directly. Parents of
participating students appreciate the program," Tyler said. "It gives
them a feeling of doing the right thing and having their child
involved in the right thing."

Most students, however, will likely participate in the testing program
because of the desire to drive to school and join in activities.

"This is a program to support students and take some pressure off of
them, because athletics or band or Key Club is more important that
substance abuse," Tyler said. "It gives them another opportunity to
look at their peers and say, 'No, I can't. I won't.' They know they
have the support of everyone behind them."

(Staff Reporter Rena Havner contributed to this report).