PANEL GIVES OK TO DRUG TESTING

Public school students in Alabama could be subject to random drug
testing if a bill that made it through a legislative committee
Wednesday becomes law.

The Education Finance and Appropriations Committee approved House Bill
464, which provides that the state Board of Education would establish
guidelines and adopt policies for random drug testing.

The bill, which now goes to the House floor, was among several that
emerged from various legislative panels Wednesday. But while those
measures were coming out of committee, several bills backed by Gov.
Bob Riley were going nowhere.

Rep. Ronald Johnson, R-Sylacauga, sponsor of the drug testing bill,
said the legislation is needed in the state's public schools.

"In some schools in the state today there is absolutely no random
testing because of the cost of doing it and the equipment you have to
have and the expertise you have to have," Johnson said. "If we don't
try to get a handle on some of the drug use, especially of things like
methamphetamines, it will destroy young people's lives."

Currently, the Montgomery system does not test students for drugs,
said school spokeswoman Angela Mann.

"Other public schools in the state and private schools in the area
have done drug testing, particularly for students who are in
extracurricular activities," Mann said, "but we have not been
compelled to start that ourselves."

According to language in the bill, local school boards could decide
for themselves whether to implement mandatory random drug testing.

Montgomery School Superintendent Clinton Carter said one setback to
pursuing such testing is funding.

"I certainly would support random drug testing. However, the problem
would be who's going to pay for it," Carter said. "It does cost money
to do these tests, and unless you get funding to do it, then it would
be impossible to do these things."

Johnson said if the bill is signed into law, it would make it possible
for the state Board of Education to apply for millions of federal
dollars to fund the testing at no cost to the state.

"There's no matching money required, and it will give us some
resources that we don't have," Johnson said.

The bill also has received positive response from some parents and
school officials.

Montgomery resident Shelia Thomas, who has a child in junior high
school, said she approved of a drug testing -- for students and teachers.

"I don't have a problem with it at all. I think they should do that,
and teachers should be included if they are going to be around kids,"
she said. "You can't just look at a person and say they are drug free.
They could have a history."

Darren Douthitt, principal of George Washington Carver High School in
Montgomery, said in his seven months on the job he has had to deal
with the issue of students and drugs.

"There have been occasions where we've had to send students home who
were under the influence of marijuana and in possession of marijuana,"
he said.

Douthitt also said he spent time as an assistant principal at a junior
high school in Pell City, and the school had mandatory random drug
testing for the staff as well as the students.

"I would embrace something like this for students and staff," Johnson
said. "I've worked in a system where I have been drug tested, and I
think that it is important for the staff ... to be role models.

"It would be a preventive tool, and these days, we need all the
prevention we can get," he said.

While Johnson's drug testing bill received a thumbs-up from committee
members Wednesday, two of Riley's accountability bills were postponed
indefinitely. The action, which effectively killed the measures in the
House, came in the wake of similar votes last week, when a number of
other accountability bills being pushed by the governor were tabled or
killed.

Adding to the administration's tough road so far this session, the
Senate Finance and Taxation-General Fund Committee voted 14-0
Wednesday against Riley's bill seeking to terminate longevity pay for
state employees.

The same committee voted 13-1 against a Riley bill that would postpone
one payday for state employees by three days.

Riley said his administration had an understanding from Senate leaders
that no accountability bills would be taken up until the conflicts
between his bills and the Legislature's bills were ironed out.

"The leaders of the Legislature continue to break their promises to
put accountability and reform first," Riley said Wednesday. "They're
killing every accountability bill and every reform bill to save
taxpayers money."

Other bills that passed out of various House committees Wednesday
included one that would impose civil penalties for violating the
state's Child Labor Law and one that would prohibit state employees
from hiring their relatives unless the individuals are bona fide
licensed professionals with at least five years of experience in their
profession