LOCAL SCHOOLS WEIGH IN ON DRUG TESTING

St. Bede Academy assistant principal and athletic director Bernie
Moore never attended any type of beauty school. Despite a lack
beautician's training, in the past four years Moore has turned into a
barber of sorts.

He has become so popular at the Academy that every student and
faculty member has visited his office to get a little off the top.

"I've been looking for one of those red and white barber poles, and I
swear I tell the kids I'm going to put it on the wall outside my
door," Moore says. "I haven't found one yet, but if anyone knows
where one is, I'd be glad to buy it from them."

Moore receives several visitors each week, but none of them arrive in
his office trying to improve their hairdo for the prom. Instead,
Moore is the person in charge of collecting hair samples from staff
and students to test for drug use.

"It's a very, very simple process," Moore says. "It's very
non-invasive to the kids. The girls tend to have, at least initially,
some great concern because they have this feeling that you are going
to scalp them and take this big swatch of hair out of their head, and
that is not the case at all. It is a very small sample. On anyone
that has hair length of about an inch and a half or more, you can
cover it up so it is virtually undetectable."

Since the 2002-03 school year, St. Bede has tested every student and
every faculty member each year for drug use. St. Bede is the only
high school in the area that tests hair samples for drug use.

The other three area high schools that had drug testing programs in
place last school year were Bureau Valley, Princeton and Putnam
County. Both Bureau Valley and Princeton just completed their fifth
year of drug testing. Putnam County started its program a year later
in the 2002-03 school year.

"I think every school should do it," says Putnam County athletic
director Dave Garcia. "I just think in a small school, sports are so
important. The kids are identified so much by not just sports, but
all extracurricular activities that I think having the possibility
of being excluded from that for smoking a cigarette or drinking a
beer (is a deterrent). If we can get those kids to stop it now,
they're more likely not to do it as they get older."