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Over the course of the next month, every student-athlete at Troy University will be tested for drugs, Trojans athletics director John Hartwell said Thursday.The decision came on the heels of four student deaths over the holiday break and several tragic incidents, involving athletes recently.Former football player was found dead on a Mississippi Highway last Thursday after being hit by a vehicle. Another football player, former linebacker , has been charged in the shooting of another man and football signee has been charged with manslaughter in the death of a current Troy football player's sister.

"I said we've got to take every precaution that we can to protect any further loss from our family, the Troy family,'' Hartwell. "The intertwining thing, without getting into the details of any case, is clearly you had weapons involved, you had alcohol and/or drugs and you had late-night incidents.

"The message is, 'Hey, we've got to do what we can to protect ourselves from getting in those situations.'''

The parents of an athlete are notified the first time a student athlete tests positive under Troy policy.

"We want to take this as an opportunity for us to get better and try to minimize the opportunity for these things to happen again in the future and to make sure we send the proper message to our student-athletes,'' Hartwell said.