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Random steriod testing for Florida high school athletes
Filed under: Teens, Health & Safety: Babies, Alcohol & Drugs, Day Care & Education
Last year, New Jersey became the first state in the country to address the issue of performance-enhancing drug use in high school sports with a statewide policy for drug testing athletes. The initial testing this past fall resulted in zero positive results from 150 random samples.
Florida is also concerned about steroid use by high school athletes and the legislature just passed a one-year pilot program to drug test players. Athletes participating in football, baseball and weightlifting will all be subject to random testing for the presence of anabolic steroids during the 2007-2008 school year Any athlete who refuses to submit a urine sample will be kicked off the team, but could be reinstated later if they agree to, and pass, the test.
Pending the governor's signature, the program becomes effective July 1 and will be overseen by the Florida High School Athletics Association. Texas is poised to pass similar legislation and it won't be long before other states join in. I haven't seen much negative reaction to this testing, which surprises me. What do you think about random drug testing for high school athletes?
Florida is also concerned about steroid use by high school athletes and the legislature just passed a one-year pilot program to drug test players. Athletes participating in football, baseball and weightlifting will all be subject to random testing for the presence of anabolic steroids during the 2007-2008 school year Any athlete who refuses to submit a urine sample will be kicked off the team, but could be reinstated later if they agree to, and pass, the test.
Pending the governor's signature, the program becomes effective July 1 and will be overseen by the Florida High School Athletics Association. Texas is poised to pass similar legislation and it won't be long before other states join in. I haven't seen much negative reaction to this testing, which surprises me. What do you think about random drug testing for high school athletes?
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-06-2007 @ 2:16PM
Rachel May said...My take on it, as with other situations like this, is: If you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about.
I don't really understand why anyone would object to random testing. What I don't really understand is why there's not random testing for the whole school for various illegal substances. Why single out the athletes?
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5-06-2007 @ 4:22PM
Jacinda said...Rachel: It's easy to have that outlook, until it is your privacy that's being abridged. Would you be fine emptying your purse every time you leave a store? There are many, many situations like this, which I don't believe you (or most people) would agree to. Policies like this teach kids that criminality is the default, the expected way.
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5-19-2007 @ 6:57PM
Sonja Baeza said...I have a 14 yo daughter and I live in a small town in West Texas, we have a great school system and my daughter is involved in evrything, from sports to Band to UIL Academics, but two years ago our district began a mandatory drug testing for ANY extracirricular activity. We also have random testing thru the year, this has been a great help for our kids and parents, it lets the kids know we care and are watching and that being involved in a school activity is a privlege and you are a representative of your school, so you need to put a good, healthy out for all to see. Also we have free counseling for children and parents who test positive for an illegal substance, it is only after the third offfense that the child will not be able to be in an event or sport, but each time the counseling gets more intense and there are punishments for 2nd or 3rd offense. We are living in a hard world,full of temptation and pressure, so we have to ready to give all we can to help our children .
Some may think this policy a infringment on privacy of our teens, but I feel that protecting them from harm must come first. It works here, I have seen it.
Sonja
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