Pubdate: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 Source: Huntsville Times (AL) Copyright: 2000 The Huntsville Times Contact: P.O. Box 1487, Huntsville, AL 35807 Fax: (256) 532-4213 Website: http://www.al.com/huntsville/news.html Forum: http://www.al.com/forums/huntsville/ Author: Ken Henderson ARAB SCHOOL DRUG-TESTING PLAN WINS PUBLIC FAVOR ARAB - A two-hour public forum with the Arab City Board of Education Thursday night revealed broad support for random drug testing of all students in the system, not just student athletes and cheerleaders. Even though 1,500 students attend Arab High School, with about 750 student athletes, only about 20 to 30 parents and teachers attended the session, which Superintendent Edwin Cooley said yielded the reaction the board was looking for. But board attorney Claud Burke said although the courts have been inconsistent on the legality of testing the entire student body of a school system, numerous rulings uphold testing student athletes because they are voluntarily playing sports and because of the risk of injury in athletics. The proposed drug testing policy the board is considering would require only student athletes to submit to random testing. Student athletes and their parents would be required to sign a consent form stating they would be willing to submit to the testing, and if they refused, they would be suspended immediately from athletic activities. Cooley said the school system has had numerous programs in place for several years to try to deter drug use among students, including the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program and others, but a University of Colorado study conducted three years ago showed that 50 percent of eighth-graders in the school system had tried marijuana. "If there is a program anywhere in the United States that has empirical evidence that it's successful, we'll go for it," said Cooley. Cooley said the proposed policy is being evaluated by attorneys for the school system's liability insurance carrier and by state board of education officials and he could ask for a special meeting in two or three weeks to approve it. He said it would be several more weeks after approval before the system would be ready to ask for specimens for testing. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk