HALL MULLS DRUG TESTING FOR ATHLETES

The Hall County School System is looking at starting a drug-testing program,
possibly in the fall and geared mainly to athletes.

The Board of Education gave administrators the OK to continue exploring the
idea Monday, after hearing a presentation from Gordon Higgins, the school
system's director of community relations and athletics.

"We need to send some kind of message that we don't want (drugs) in our
schools," said board member Nath Morris.

Higgins said the issue got started after Flowery Branch High School
principal Mark Coleman called him and said some coaches had approached him
with the idea.

"There had been some talk in school about parties on the weekend, and they
wondered what can we do to make a positive statement about saying no to
drugs," he said.

Hall County visited with White County schools officials, who started a
voluntary program at White County High School about 1' years ago.

"They recommend making (the program) voluntary," Higgins said. "If it's
compulsory, it's inevitable you'll have lawsuits."

White County applies the policy to students who compete in Georgia High
School Association-sanctioned events, or mainly athletes. Some 200 students'
parents have agreed to the testing, while six opted out, Higgins said.

Three students ended up testing positive for drugs.

Students who test positive the first time are placed in a counseling
program. Also, they can remain on the team and participate in practices, but
they cannot play in a game until they test negative, Higgins said.

The parents of those three students "were in denial at first," he said.
"They believed the tests had to be wrong."

But then they "quickly became grounded in reality" once the results were
explained further.

"Because of the way this (program) has been approached, it has been widely
accepted in the schools and the community," Higgins said. "... Parents want
to be involved in their kids' lives."

White County High has paid for the testing, which cost $7,000 in the first
year.

Hall school board member Lori Thompson said that if the program were
voluntary in Hall, "some parents might be willing to pay (for the tests)."

Board chairman Richard Higgins briefly raised the matter of whether to allow
individual high schools to participate in the program.

"I think we either do it (at all the schools) or we don't," Thompson said.

She said believes the program would work well even for the students who test
positive.

"I think the whole approach is helping children. If we see they have a
(drug) problem, we could get them some help."

Higgins said the issue is set for further discussion at a high school
principals meeting March 10.