DRUG, ALCOHOL TEST KITS DISTRIBUTED TO 5 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 will carry drugs
into the school or use alcohol, New Albany High School Principal Stephen
Sipes said.

The kits and portable breath-test machines, bought with federal grant
money, went to New Albany High, Floyd Central Senior and Junior High,
Hazelwood Junior High, Scribner Junior High and Prosser School of Technology.

The 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.