COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS HARTSELLE GET DRUG POLICY

HARTSELLE -- The Hartselle City School system could start drug-testing
students who participate in extracurricular activities as soon as the next
school term.

The committee the school board appointed to develop a policy voted
unanimously Monday night to recommend that Hartselle have a drug-testing
policy.

The group did not decide who would be tested or if the policy would
recommend testing students that the school system does not suspect of drug use.

School Board Chairman Susan Puckett, who serves also on the committee, said
the board could implement the policy after school started in August.

Supreme Court vote allows testing

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, cleared the way for school
systems to test students who participate in extracurricular activities.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the opinion for himself, Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and
Stephen Breyer.

"We find that testing students who participate in extracurricular
activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the school
district's legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and detecting drug
use," Thomas wrote.

Hartselle student Amanda Munger serves on the committee. She said students
she talked with are worried about the drug-testing policy.

Committee member Greg Dobbs said the vote is a move in the right direction.
He made the motion to send the recommendation to the school board, but it
took him almost 30 minutes to get committee Chairman Susan Hayes to call
for a vote.

The committee voted by secret ballot.