HIGH SCHOOL PLANS VOLUNTARY DRUG TESTS

Student athletes at Prattville High School soon will have the option
of participating in a voluntary drug testing program.

The Autauga County Board of Education approved the idea in February.
Once the program is in place, it will be administered by the Peers Are
Staying Straight program, which currently supervises the Independent
Decision drug testing program in Autauga County schools.

"The goal is to have voluntary drug testing with incentives for
athletes at Prattville High School," said P.A.S.S. executive director
Martha Ellis. "We are in the development phase of the program. We are
still working out the nuts and bolts."

Ellis said she hopes to model much of the policy after the Independent
Decision program, which now is in its third year working with Autauga
County seventh-through 10th-graders. That program, which eventually
will encompass the junior and senior classes, has students sign up for
voluntary drug testing. Once they are cleared with a negative test
result, the students receive an I.D. card which makes them eligible
for discounts at 70 Prattville-area businesses. Ellis said the idea
behind the program is to reward good behavior as opposed to being a
punitive action.

"It's more positive than trying to catch kids using," Ellis said.
"We're not going to catch them using, we're going to reward them or
spotlight those that aren't using."

Jan Hardin, who has a daughter at Autauga Academy currently enrolled
in the I.D. program, said she thinks it is a good thing for students
to participate in.

"I think it's an excellent program," Hardin said. "I wish it had been
in force years ago, and I wish that all Autauga County students would
sign up for it."

Ellis said that approximately 60 percent of Autauga County's seventh-
through 10th-graders currently take part in the I.D. program.

Autauga County school superintendent Larry Butler said the preemptive
nature of the I.D. program is what makes it successful.

"You know how peer pressure is," Butler said. "You've never been
involved with anything before, and suddenly you find yourself in some
type of peer pressure situation. This makes them think before going
forward with something. It also says to everybody, 'look, I'm clean,
and I have nothing to hide.'"

In the Independent Decision program, those students who have signed up
and had consent forms signed by their parents can be tested at random
throughout the year. The test is done by urinalysis, which is
contracted to Drug Test Services in Montgomery, an organization Ellis
said probably would handle the testing for the athletic program once
it is in place.

Ellis stressed that the particulars of the program still have to be
worked out between her, the board of education and the staff at
Prattville High School, indicating that incentives offered to athletes
participating in the program would be different from those offered in
the current program.

She said the consequences of testing positive likely would be similar,
however. In the I.D. program, the lab first confirms through the
parents that the result is not due to prescription medication. If it
is not, the student turns over his I.D. card, and the rest is left up
to parents. Ellis said there is no law enforcement penalty unless the
parents initiate it.

The program will be funded by a grant through the U.S. Department of
Education. Ellis said the addition of student athletes to the
voluntary drug testing system will help set a good example for the
rest of the student body.

"This will provide them an opportunity to declare themselves as
leading safe and drug-free lifestyles," Ellis said. "Because our
athletes are in the spotlight so much, they can be positive peer role
models for others in the school."