Random testing of students will follow throughout the year. The results from the school's 1,100 students and 85 faculty and staff are kept in a locked safe. When results come in, samples are identified by student number, not name, he said. Johnson said confidentiality prohibited him from saying whether any of the total 200 student tests or 80 faculty and staff tests had come back positive. Martin McCaffery, spokesman for Alabama's American Civil Liberties Union, said that while the organization is against mandatory drug testing in schools, courts have upheld the legality of the practice, even in public schools.
Critics see such screening as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, outlawing illegal searches.
Whether it's effective or not, that's another question. St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile opted to go for a voluntary student drug-testing program so that parents can request their children be tested, Headmaster Bob Rutledge said. School officials and supporters still are divided over whether such testing is truly a function of the school, he said. Under the voluntary program, the school can organize the testing, but only the parents are notified of the results. In the meantime, the school has started more aggressively testing students who they suspect may have problems, he said.