DISTRICT DISTRIBUTES DRUG-TESTING KITS TO SCHOOLS

NEW ALBANY, Ind.- Testing kits that can be used to detect drugs and
alcohol have been distributed to five schools in the New Albany-Floyd
County school district.

The idea - along with a plan to have the Floyd County Sheriff's
Department and New Albany police patrol district middle and high
schools - came out of emergency preparedness talks between school
administrators and law enforcement officers, said Tony Bennett,
assistant to the superintendent for administration.

The testing kits will make it less likely that students carry drugs
into the school or use alcohol because they know they will have a
greater chance of getting caught if they do, New Albany High School
Principal Stephen Sipes said.

Jacque Vaught, chief investigator for the Floyd County prosecutor's
office, said the equipment cost about $1,000 and was bought with
money from federal grants.

Each drug kit can be used about 20 times to determine whether a
substance is an illegal drug. The kits and portable breath-test
machines went to New Albany High, Floyd Central Senior and Junior
High, Hazelwood Junior High, Scribner Junior High and Prosser School
of Technology.

The drug-testing equipment cannot be used to determine whether
someone has used drugs. But it can determine whether a dried herb is
marijuana or whether a powder is cocaine.