Lauderdale County schools spent nearly $13,000 last year in student drug testing. It's an expense that's worth the money, officials say. Still, it hits the pocketbook hard, especially when the state doesn't provide any funding for the testing. While school administrators across the state agree that student drug testing is beneficial, it is cost prohibitive for many school districts. Most Shoals area school districts perform random drug tests. It's an expense some school officials say simply isn't optional. [continues 874 words]
FLORENCE - Florence city school students involved in any extracurricular activity requiring a sponsor or coach could be subject to random drug testing. The school board Tuesday night voted to implement the testing, with board members calling it a safeguard measure for the students and the school system. The drug testing policy is still in draft form and is posted for 14 days for public input. Florence's school district joins the ranks of Lauderdale County, Muscle Shoals, Russellville and Sheffield in conducting testing. Colbert County and Tuscumbia districts have considered similar policies but have not approved them. [continues 658 words]
Mike Reese, an agent with the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control board, has a message for parents: Be alert in all respects regarding your kids and what they're doing. For the past three years, Reese has been traveling the state with his program for parents and students called Operation Save Teens. It's a graphic video depiction of true cases of Alabama teen drug overdoses, even deaths. Reese has brought his program to the Shoals on different occasions, leaving each time with numerous requests to return. [continues 425 words]
Ranger Program Offers Positive Reinforcement Fifth-graders at Cherokee Middle School know the difference between good drugs and bad drugs. And they know which good drugs become bad ones when misused. Their information has come through the Rangers Against Drugs program. For the past six weeks, students have had extensive lessons twice a week, explaining the dangers of drugs and how to make the right choices in life. The National Park Service conducts the program. The school's 67 fifth-graders were awarded a badge and certificate of completion Thursday in a ceremony in the school gymnasium. Each fifth-grader wrote an essay on what he learned from the program. Sixth-through eighth-grade students who went through the program as fifth-graders, watched and listened as winning essays were read. [continues 263 words]
COLBERT HEIGHTS - A Colbert Heights Elementary sixth-grader is facing expulsion after being accused of giving a marijuana cigarette to another sixth-grader, school officials say. The student, whose name was withheld because of his juvenile status, is suspended until a March 17 hearing before the Colbert County Board of Education. The child who was given the marijuana also received a one-day suspension and did not go to school Thursday. Sue Hornbeak said her son came home Tuesday with a single marijuana cigarette and asked her if it was really marijuana. [continues 199 words]
The expulsion of a Muscle Shoals senior football player last week sent a signal that the city's school system will take drastic action when school policies are violated. In that case, the school board ruled that Cody Dixon, a student accused of possessing drug paraphernalia on campus, would not be allowed to finish his senior year at Muscle Shoals High School. His expulsion is for the remainder of the school year. He may be re-enrolled at the beginning of the 2003-2004 school year in August provided he undergoes drug counseling and submits a clean drug test report prior to enrollment. [continues 946 words]
Wilson School kindergartner Dillon Frederick knows exactly what to do if he finds a gun. "You leave it alone," he said. "I mean, don't dare touch it. Tell an adult about it." That's the very response his school resource officer, Lauderdale County sheriff's deputy Steve Adkison, would expect. Adkison and Deputy Jonathan Richey serve the county's 11 schools. Among their many duties is providing Drug Abuse Resistance Education in the lower grade levels. The national drug prevention program is generally aimed at fifth-graders, but starting in the lower grades is better, the officers said. [continues 440 words]
FLORENCE - The regional forensic science laboratory in Florence is in jeopardy of closure from a too familiar problem - lack of state funding. After digging out from a backlog of cases, the state Department of Forensic Sciences is again planning to cut its services because of the drop in funding, which equates regionally to about 60 percent. State Forensics Director J.C. Upshaw Downs said his agency's budget will be about $2.25 million short for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, and cuts will have to be made. Downs, who resigned this week after more than two decades in the forensics field, will be gone as of Sept. 1. [continues 872 words]
As I drove back to my office last Monday night from a deeply troubling program I'd just seen at Deshler High School, it occurred to me that my "I-can't-believe-what-I'm-seeing" attitude was likely shared by everyone in the audience. For more than an hour, the audience was spellbound, watching footage of true Alabama drug overdose cases. All teen-agers. No special effects. Just real-life drug use and the corpses left behind. "Disgusting" was the word one teen-age girl in the audience grunted repeatedly. But it is the kind of disgust we all need to see. [continues 511 words]
Mike Reese does more than tell teens about the dangers of alcohol and drugs. He shows them. Not a student stirred for more than an hour Wednesday as juniors and seniors from Wilson and Central high schools watched Reese's multimedia presentation. An agent with the narcotics division of the Alabama Beverage Control board in Gadsden, Reese travels the state as part of Operation Save Teens. He spoke Wednesday at Wilson High School and Cloverdale Junior High. His information was pointed. It was factual. It was taken from actual drug and alcohol overdose cases in Alabama. [continues 670 words]
