DRUG TESTING DRAWS SUPPORT

A sampling of Cumberland County coaches, athletes and parents of
athletes had few objections to a proposal to conduct random drug tests
beginning next year. And all saw benefits to the plan. Among the most
outspoken was Gretchen McLean, a junior who plays golf for Douglas
Byrd High School. "It's a way to make sure that the students stay
safe, which will hopefully keep them alive and healthier," she said.

Asked if she thought the testing was an invasion of privacy, McLean
said, "I don't see trying to keep you safe and healthier a violation
of privacy." A proposal to randomly test athletes and students
participating in competitive extracurricular activities is expected to
be up for a vote by the Cumberland County Board of Education at its
Dec. 12 meeting. Members of the board's Policy Committee offered no
objections to the plan during a Thursday meeting.

The plan would include testing for about 3,000 students in the first
year and be paid for through a four-year, $1.2 million grant from the
U.S. Department of Education.

Seventy-First football coach Bob Paroli, who is in his 49th year of
coaching, has long been a supporter of the random drug testing of
athletes. "My feeling is that if you have one young person in a school
building that is using some kind of substance, that's one too many,"
he said. "If we have random testing of youngsters in after-school
activities, we would go a long way to helping them understand it's a
type of behavior they don't need to be involved in." Paroli said he
agreed with Fred McDaniel, Cumberland County's student activities
director, that the purpose of the testing is not to catch students
purely for the purpose of punishing them.

"The intent is to create a deterrent for the use of substances which
no one, especially young people, should be involved in," Paroli said.
Jack Britt football coach Richard Bailey agrees with the proposal in
principle but has some questions about how it would be administered.
"Who's verifying it?" he said. "Are we going to have an A sample and a
B sample like in the bicycle races?

I need to know more about how they are going to test and what the
punishments are going to be." Bailey previously coached at Andrews
High School in the North Carolina mountains. "We drug tested every
athlete at the beginning of the year, and it was random after that,"
he said. "I would rather see something like that done, but I know it
would probably be too expensive." E.E. Smith volleyball and girls'
basketball coach Dee Hardy said she thinks it's a good step.

"Maybe it will help some young people to understand they don't need to
be dabbling with drugs," she said. "Drug use shouldn't be an in issue
with athletics." Wendell Williams, father of Jack Britt basketball
player C.J. Williams, agreed the plan is positive at face value but
worries about the civil liberties of the athletes.

"I think they would have to embark on an educational tour for all the
student-athletes, so they would know what type substances can trigger
a positive test," he said. "They should know once they come up with a
positive test, it wasn't triggered by over-the-counter drugs." Kay
Gilbert, mother of Terry Sanford tennis, cross country and track
athlete Taylor Gilbert, thinks athletes or anyone representing the
school should be held to a higher standard.

"That's what I have always taught my kid," she said. "You have a
standard. If you're going to be part of something like this, you have
to set an example for people.

I personally don't have a problem with it, but I'm sure some people
will." Jack Britt sophomore football player Mike Mathis thinks drug
testing is a good idea. "They can give me a drug test tomorrow," he
said. "Athletes shouldn't be doing stuff like that anyway." South View
football player Ryan Everitte thinks the testing would serve as a
deterrent. "I'm pretty sure they would rather play football than do
what they are doing," he said. "Players would straighten up and it
would be better for us."