HEADMASTER SUPPORTIVE OF SCHOOL SEARCH

The headmaster of one of the schools involved in a drug and weapons
intervention program earlier this week said the program is a good one
and that his school would be participating in the future.

Dr. Michael Gaylor, who has been headmaster at Meadowview Christian
School for three years, said he was first contacted by the district
attorney's office about participating in the program, the first such
for his school.

"They came to me that morning and told me they had planned to do this
at the public schools and they decided they needed to offer it at the
private schools," Gaylor said.

"We all want our schools to be safer and after he explained how it
was going to be run, with an amnesty box, I agreed to do it."

The amnesty box was put in place for students to anonymously drop
contraband items in, no questions asked, prior to the search.

When officers arrived, Gaylor said students were surprised to see
them, but that the search went as he thought it would.

"Having people coming in here caused a little excitement, but I
didn't see any concern on anybody's part," he said. "I explained to
the faculty and students that we were doing it to make everyone
safer, that we weren't doing it to hurt anyone. It made me feel good
to know we didn't have any drugs or weapons found here."

Miriam Anderson, who teaches science at Meadowview, agrees.

"I knew before they got there they weren't going to find anything."

Anderson said the school's admission requirements state that students
adhere to a drug and alcohol policy, including random drug testing.

It also allows for student's lockers or vehicles to be searched.

"As we are a private school, (law enforcement) needs our permission
to come on campus and do that, but it's good that our children know
that they have the ability to do that with our permission, she said."

Gaylor said he supports his school participating in the interdiction
program in the future.

"As long as I'm here, I'm enthusiastically supportive of it," he said.

"There are too many drugs and too much violence in society and we all
have a responsibility to reduce it and try to eliminate it."

Meadowview Christian School is a pre-kindergarten through 12th grade
school in Selma with an enrollment of nearly 300 students.