beginning of the 1969-1970 school year the school had about 600 students in grades 1-12. The school accepted about 900 students after the end of the first semester, giving the school a total of 1,500 students. In the 1970-1971 school year the elementary classes continued to be held at the area Baptist and Methodist churches, while the students in grades 7-12 moved to the Educational Plant at U.S. Highway 82 East. In 1970, about 200 white students left Indianola academy, but did not enroll in racially integrated public schools. In 1983, the school enrolled its first black student. In the same year, the school established a scholarship program for minority students. An NAACP representative claimed that the school had paid the family of the black student to enroll to avoid losing its tax exempt status. In 1990 the school system in Indianola was still essentially segregated, with most African-American students attending public schools and most white students attending the Indianola Academy. Drug testing In 1989 the Indianola Academy made national news with a plan to make drug testing mandatory for all students and employees of the school. Under the plan adopted by the school a positive result would mean a mandatory retest after 100 days. Further positive results would require notification of parents and exclusion of students from extracurricular activities. Students who refuse to take the test would be dismissed. Although the United States Supreme Court has ruled that mandatory testing of teachers and administrators in public schools is a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, schools such as the Indianola Academy are exempt from scrutiny because they are privately run. At the time the plan was adopted it was most stringent school drug testing program in the United States. Joyce McCray, executive director of the Council for American Private Education, said of the plan that she had "never heard of anything like it. It's an unusual and unique program. It's also a little bewildering and sad. That doesn't sound like education." Administration the headmaster, high school principal, and elementary principal are Sammy Henderson, Charles D. Mason, and Katherine B. Gibbs, respectively. Accreditation Indianola Academy is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, and the Southern Association of Independent Schools. Demographics For the 2009-2010 school year, according to the Private School Universe Survey, the school had 434 white