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State official wants Texas high school athletes tested for steroids

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KFDM COOP

KFDM COOP

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State official wants Texas high school athletes tested for steroids

JIM VERTUNO= Associated Press Writer

January 25, 2007 - 10:01PM

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Texas is a hotbed of high school football, where the Friday night lights burn brighter and many of the athletes are among the biggest, fastest and strongest in the country.

A key state leader is pushing to make Texas kids the cleanest athletes as well.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, is proposing a sweeping mandatory random testing program in public schools for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

And it would go far beyond football. Athletes in baseball, basketball, track and other sports likely would be tested, too.

If approved, it would be the nation's largest program of its kind at the high school level, with tens of thousands of students tested every year.

"It will save lives. That's the whole purpose," Dewhurst said. "I'm convinced steroid use in high schools is greater than people want to admit."

The question is whether local school districts, a powerful lobby at the state Capitol, will want to go along. They have resisted in the past.

"Many schools would say they have a bigger problem with alcohol and other drugs," said Charles Breithaupt, athletic director for the University Interscholastic League, the governing body for Texas public school sports. "A lot of them think this is a local issue and way below the radar."

Dewhurst's proposal wouldn't be the first of its kind _ New Jersey started a testing program last fall _ but it would be the biggest.

Texas had 733,026 students participate in public school sports during the 2005-06 school year, more than any other state.

The New Jersey program only tests athletes who qualify for state championships. Dewhurst envisions a much broader, season-long program in Texas, although he has yet to reveal details.

That's when the questions over local control, student privacy, punishments for failed tests and other issues must be answered.

Some Texas schools already are testing, and their numbers are growing. Of about 1,300 member schools, a UIL survey in 2005 found that 53 schools tested athletes for steroids. By 2006, that number rose to 127.

The 2005 survey also asked the schools that didn't test: "Why not?"

More than half said it was either too expensive or because they did not think steroids are a problem on their campus. Only 39 schools said they considered steroids a problem on their teams.

Of the schools with testing programs in place, only one of 4,100 tests performed in 2005 came back positive for steroids.

And when asked who should decide whether to test, more than 800 schools said it should be handled locally.

School districts worried about cost _ the tests can run up to $200 each _ scuttled a playoffs-only testing proposal in 2005. With the low rate of positive results at the schools that do test, they wonder if it is worth the money, Breithaupt said.

A state study of substance abuse among 141,000 Texas students in grades 7-12 conducted by Texas A&M University found that steroid use fell from 2 percent in 2004 to 1.5 percent in 2006. Among 12th graders, it went down from 2.4 percent to 1.8 percent.

Tremain Smith, a lanky 17-year-old senior long jumper at Dallas Wylie High School, said he's never taken performance-enhancing drugs or competed against anybody he suspected of taking them. But he thinks testing is a good idea and would be a deterrent.

"It wouldn't be fair. You have to catch the ones trying to get an unfair advantage," Smith said.

His father, Julian, a junior ROTC instructor at the school, agreed.

"I think they should test," Julian Smith said. "These kids these days are trying to buff up their bodies and get bigger and faster."

Dewhurst said schools should be willing to go along if the state pays the bill.

Texas lawmakers began the current legislative session with a $14.3 billion budget surplus for the next two years. A random sampling of 30,000 students, about 4 percent of athletes statewide, at $200 each would cost about $6 million.

"You can't put a price tag on a young person's life," Dewhurst said.

But there's more than money at stake. Schools also worry about privacy _ how to collect a urine sample from a 14-year-old female freshman runner, for example _ penalties and the litigation that might ensue. Routine disqualifications over eligibility often end up in court.

A look at the New Jersey program might satisfy some of those concerns.

New Jersey contracts with the National Center for Drug Free Sport in Kansas City, Mo., to collect samples and send them to a lab at UCLA. Students and a parent must sign a consent form before the season. The form includes a list of banned substances.

New Jersey randomly selects athletes who qualify for team or individual state championships. The state will test about 500 students this school year.

"It forced parents to take a look at the substances that were banned and maybe take a look at what their children were ingesting," said Bob Baly, assistant director of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.

To protect student privacy, samples are collected by a monitor of the same sex as the athlete. The athlete must take off most of his or her exterior clothing but is allowed to step into a closed stall to urinate. At the college and professional levels, the monitor watches the athlete produce the urine sample.

"We have not violated their rights," Baly said.

Athletes caught with banned substances must sit out competition for a year and attend counseling. Although students and their families are notified, overall results aren't made public until the end of the school year.

Rather than catch a lot of cheaters, Baly said, New Jersey officials hope the program's real impact will be keeping kids from taking steroids or other drugs in the first place.

"They are worried about being caught and being labeled as the cheater," Baly said. "Adolescents, if you tell them speeding is dangerous, they're still going to speed. If you tell them about the cop around the corner with the radar gun, hopefully they slow down. It's the fear of being caught."

Dewhurst's plan has drawn support from Don Hooton, who became an activist for steroid testing after his son Taylor committed suicide at the age of 17. Doctors said they believe Taylor Hooton became depressed after he stopped using steroids.

"I hope his plan to curb steroid use in Texas will become a model for this nation," Hooton said at a Dewhurst campaign stop.

D.W. Rutledge, president of the 18,500-member Texas High School Coaches Association, said he believes coaches do a good job steering athletes away from steroids.

Rutledge hasn't surveyed his organization's members, but said coaches would likely have the same worries as school administrators about how such a program would work.

He also said testing would probably be a good thing for the students.

"It gives them a chance to escape the peer pressure, to say `I can't get involved with that,"' Rutledge said. "It gives them an out."

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tvc184

tvc184

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dont sound good for nederland!!!

Doesn't sound good for piratefan. He won't have one of his excuses for not making the playoffs year after year after year after year after...... 

"wahhhh... sniff sniff... everyone else is cheating.. wahhhh!!"

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baddog

baddog

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My son plays sports and is not on steroids. I say leave him alone. What gives anyone the right to test him? This is all brought on by deadbeat parents who are making a feeble attempt to shirk some more of their responsibilities. Let's make the school districts pick up our kids, babysit them for 8 hours a day, teach them how to read, write, and do arithmetic, counsel them, discipline them for us, coach them, teach them how to become responsible citizens, teach them about sex, oh yeah, and while you are at it, drug test the little imps for us, and then bring them home to us parents who have nothing else to do with them for the rest of their lives. Thanks.

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tvc184

tvc184

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well vidor has beaten yall in football ,basketball will yall win anything over Vidor this year??

Rave on piratefan. If I remember correctly, last year (usually every year and likely this one also) Nederland sent teams or individuals to the playoffs in football, boys soccer, girls soccer, baseball, softball, volleyball, boys tennis, girls tennis, swimming, boys cross country and girls cross country.

Vidor sent how many teams to the playoffs last year? I guess there is always time to recover for this year as there are still a couple of sports left to play.

Piratefan will be talking about the great year of '06 about 30 years from now while talking to his great grandkids. He will relive the glory days when the Vidor Pirates for one year beat Nederland in two sports (yet didn't send either of those Pirate teams to the playoffs) and they didn't do anything to change the standings in football to keep Nederland out of the football playoffs (again....).

Oh yes, what glorious days those were. By golly, Vidor didn't go to the playoffs (again...) but at least they kept Nederland from...... well, nothing actually.

But a win is a win. I just wonder how long piratefan will have nothing more to cheer about than a win in football that was meaningless to either team in the standings. Come on Pirates, give him something else to cheer about!!!

In basketball we are fighting it out for the cellar so if that is a source of pride to Vidor, then so be it. Yeehaa.. we beat Nederland for 7th place!

I will concede that Nederland doesn't have a basketball program while we are sending teams and individuals to the playoffs in 11 other sports.

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tvc184

tvc184

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............This is all brought on by deadbeat parents who are making a feeble attempt to shirk some more of their responsibilities. Let's make the school districts pick up our kids, babysit them for 8 hours a day, teach them how to read, write, and do arithmetic, counsel them, discipline them for us, coach them, teach them how to become responsible citizens, teach them about sex, oh yeah, and while you are at it, drug test the little imps for us, and then bring them home to us parents who have nothing else to do with them for the rest of their lives. Thanks.

You are completely correct baddog. From the sound of your posts, you are probably a good parent. As you said, it should be the parent's responsibility yet there are plenty of deadbeats out there that are not doing their jobs. It is disgusting what happens to many children growing up. I coached Little League Baseball in Nederland for a few years and there were parents to my players that I never saw. I didn't see them at practice, I never met them and never saw them at games.

What do we do with those children? As disgusting as their parents are, do we just throw those children away? I guess we can tell them that their parents are lousy so they have basically no chance in life. Sorry kid but your parents are dirtbags.

I have seen many times on television or read stories of successful adults going back to thank their teachers, coaches or some mentor they had while growing up. They tell very touching stories of how this person took them in and got them to make something of their life when no one else took an interest. 

Those are some really disheartening stories. Not because those great people were there when needed but why did the children need to get that learning and/or guidance from someone other than their parents in the first place. The truth is simply that all parents are not created equal.

I am not saying that testing for drugs is right. I am just wondering about the complaint that the schools are basically a de facto parent in many cases. That is unfortunately true but I am wondering about the alternative for the kids that do not have good parents. For those kids, if the school doesn't do it, who will?

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baddog

baddog

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tvc, i don't have a solution to the problem of deadbeat parents. It's a shame that some kids grow up without parental guidance and have to rely on the teachers to steer the way. Even a product of good parenting, such as myself, has gone back and thanked a previous teacher for showing them the attention they needed during the trying time of adolescence. But when it comes time to thank the ones responsible for who I am, my parents get all the credit.

If I think my kid is on drugs, I will test him myself. There are some kids who will surprise their parents with a positive test, but for the most part, parents already have their suspicions but don't follow through for fear of pushing their kids away. It's so much easier to lay the responsibilty elsewhere, then act concerned.

I think it is a travesty of justice to subject innocent kids to what I consider a demoralizing test, for the sole purpose of evening the playing field for sporting events and other extracurricular activties..... how shallow we have become. If I thought for one second that testing "users" would somehow curtail the drug problems of this country, then maybe I could redirect my views. What we have here is a flag toting public under the guise of stopping the drug problem. What a farce. That's akin to saying arrest all the crack users and the dealing will stop....not.

Let's keep showing our kids how suspicious we are of them being potential criminals, and laying it off on the schools. What a positive effect for authority this must have on their impressionable minds.

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tvc184

tvc184

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I agree. As I said in my previous post, I am not saying that the testing is right.

I  was just posing the question about where the schools should step in when we obviously have parents out there that will never be a good role model or be involved in their children's lives.

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Guest Football

Guest Football

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If you don't think steroids are a HUGE problem in this area, then you are either blind or stupid. Even great parents kids are on them. A lot of the time, they are the one's with enough money to buy them. I could personally tell you stories that would make some great parents want to cry about what kids are doing today, that parents are clueless too. Cocaine, believe it or not, is another huge problem in our area. Look at your kids myspace's and you'll see we have more problems than we as adults are admitting too. More drug testing the better, in my opinion.

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Htexans90

Htexans90

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i dont understand what steriod testing has to do with deadbeat parents or shameing the innocent, i think it should be done to level the playing field, those "innocent little kids" should be the ones wanting testing done. for the kids that go to practice everyday and say yes sir, no sir. they bust their buts on the field and in the weight room but still cant compete with the bigger stronger kids because they are cheating, steroids might or might not be a problem in SETX but for every kid who makes it and gets a scholarship for using steriods there is his backup that keeps on making his way in the world the right way, paying his own way through college and studying to get his degree, and he gets to wonder what could have been

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Bigdog

Bigdog

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if Nederland isnt guilty then why  dont you get tested???

        tvc quit emailing me asking me to stop posting..

If there is nothing to hide then why not get tested??

They do test, and have for the last two years.  Read before you post.  ::)

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