Taylor County Schools are a step closer to requiring students who participate in extracurricular activities or drive to school to take random drug tests.

At their regular meeting Tuesday, Taylor County School Board members discussed a drug testing policy presented by Taylor County High teacher Debbie Hinton on behalf of a committee appointed to study the issue.

While students at Taylor County Middle School would be included, Hinton said, the testing would focus on the high school.

"Students who participate in anything that is a voluntary activity could be tested," Hinton said.

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Taylor County students who participate in extracurricular school activities may soon face random drug tests.

At last week's regular meeting of the Taylor County School Board, Debbie Hinton, a Taylor County High School teacher and member of the school culture committee, asked Board members to consider such a policy, which she says will curb drug use.

"Research has shown that random drug testing has diminished drug use in middle and high schools - up to 85 percent," she said.

In addition, Hinton said, the possibility of being tested gives students an easy way to say "No" to peer pressure.

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A co-chairman of the state Senate Health Committee said he plans to hold hearings this fall to address problems within the state- sanctioned physician drug-treatment program. His statement followed a claim last week that a psychiatrist was addicted to drugs when she treated a police officer who later killed five people and himself.

One flaw in the program is the policy of calling enrolled doctors a day before a random urine sample is taken, said state Sen. Joseph F. Vitale, D-Middlesex. Doctors being monitored by the Physicians' Health Program for signs of drug abuse should at the very least be given unannounced tests, he said.

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