HHS ADOPTS POLICY FOR DRUG TESTING

Starting this summer, students at Hattiesburg High School will be
subject to random drug screenings - if they want to participate in
extracurricular activities.

Students who participate in extracurricular activities ranging from
power lifting to show choir will be subject to drug screening under
the new policy, which goes into effect July 15.

Hattiesburg Superintendent Annie Wimbish said the policy is designed
to deter student drug use.

"We have heard so much on the news about steroids," Wimbish said.
"This is an effort to help kids think safe and be safe."

About 10 percent of the district's ninth-through 12th-grade students
will be screened each year.

Students who test positive are barred from 20 percent of that
season's games. A second offense puts a student out of
extracurriculars for the rest of the school year, a third offense for
12 months. Students who test positive a fourth time permanently are
banned from district extracurricular activities. In all cases, a
parent or guardian is notified.

Wimbish said the policy is modeled after neighboring districts'
programs.

"We didn't reinvent the wheel, here," Wimbish said.

Like other districts' policies, Hattiesburg's is geared toward
handling positive screenings in-house -students who test positive for
drugs are dealt with by parents and school authorities, not law
enforcement.

"We will have a major counseling component in there," Wimbish said.
"If a child was using drugs, we would want to help them."

Random drug screening policies for student athletes were upheld by
the U.S. Supreme Court in 2002, Petal attorney Bill Jones said,
despite questions about such policies' constitutionality.

Jones serves on the State Board of Education and as Petal School
District's attorney.

"More and more schools are adopting those policies," Jones said.

Petal has tested student athletes for 13 years, Superintendent James
Hutto said.

"The idea behind it is not punitive," Hutto said. "We're not trying
to punish kids, though there are penalties if you do test positive.
If kids are dabbling in drugs, we want to help them get on the right
track."

Many school districts nationwide have drug screening policies for
athletics, but Jones said the trend has become to extend testing into
other extracurricular areas, as Hattiesburg's policy does.

Screening too wide a swath of students, Jones said, could open the
door to another legal challenge.

Parent Dedra Gavin said she doesn't have a problem with random drug
testing. Her daughter Eboni, a junior, is in Hattiesburg High's band.

"I think testing is a good idea for sports because of things like
steroids enhancing performance," Gavin said. "But for things like
band or chorus, I don't see where drugs would have anything to do
with performance."

Nonetheless, Gavin said she doesn't have a problem with the policy.

"They could test her 24-seven and I wouldn't care," Gavin said.