Texas poised to mandate random drug testing for steroids for high school athletes
Texas is poised to become the first state to enact a law requiring high school athletes to undergo random drug testing for steroids. The Texas Senate has approved a bill to test 3% of the state's 740,000 high school athletes, or about 22,000 boys and girls, every year. The Texas House of Representatives had previously approved a similar measure. Although Governor Rick Perry has not taken a position, legislators expect him to sign the final bill. New Jersey passed a steroid testing law last year, but it applies only to high school athletes who reach playoff competitions. California, Illinois, Florida, and New Mexico also are considering steroid testing laws. While calls from anti-steroid activists for such laws are building momentum, concerns linger regarding the cost and violating the privacy of thousands of student-athletes to catch a relative few. A California legislator's proposal to test about 20,000 high school athletes a year was recently rejected by a state legislative committee amid opposition from the American Civil Liberties Union and the California Teachers Association. Experts note it is difficult to estimate how many student-athletes are taking steroids because users often conceal their habit even from their closest friends. However, some experts believe that 750,000 or more youngsters nationwide will use the drugs before graduating from high school. Monitoring the Future, a University of Michigan survey that has been tracking drug use among high school seniors since 1975, found last year that 2.7% percent of them had used steroids.
Boston Globe
By Miguel Bustillo (Los Angeles Times)
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[Editor’s Note: Information on the Illinois High School Association’s (IHSA) steroid testing proposal and the New Jersey program is available below. More information is available on the Monitoring the Future website and in the article about student steroid use from the American School Board Journal.]
[NSBA School Law pages on IHSA steroid testing proposal]
[Monitoring the Future website]
American School Board Journal
By Laura Bonetta
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