HOOVER SCHOOLS EYE VOLUNTARY DRUG TESTING

Hoover school officials are exploring whether to expand their idea for
alcohol, drug and tobacco testing to include the whole student body - on a
voluntary basis.

City School Superintendent Jack Farr has asked the Hoover Board of
Education and parent organizations to consider the possibility of voluntary
drug testing for students in the seventh through 12th grades.

Farr on Monday officially presented a proposal to the school board that
would require all student athletes to submit to random and selective
drug-testing. The policy would include sports teams, cheerleading squads,
the marching band, dance teams and technical theater classes.

But Farr also sent a memo to leaders of parent-teacher organizations,
asking for their thoughts about voluntary testing for all students.

"While we cannot require our other students to be a part of this random
drug-testing program, it may be possible for them to volunteer to be a part
of the program," Farr wrote.

Voluntary student drug-testing programs have been around for years, Farr said.

Calhoun County schools is starting a program in which students take a
pledge to be free of drugs and violence and agree to random drug screens,
he said.

In that program, 10 percent of participating students would be tested, and
students who participate would receive a discount card to be used at area
merchants, according to a letter from Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson.

Eighty-five percent of seventh-, eighthand ninth-graders in Lee County
schools are participating in a similar program, Amerson wrote.

Hoover school and state athletic association officials aren't aware of any
other Alabama school system whose drug test covers tobacco use, but Farr
said court cases have supported tobacco testing in other states.

School board President Alex Farris III said the board likely will address
the drug-testing proposal May 22.