Athletic Drug Testing in Secondary Schools
Testing Athletes in High School for Drug Use is Controversial
The first drug testing of athletes was performed in 1965 for the Tour of Britain cycling competition (Anderson, M., Parr, G., & Hall, S., 2009). The International Olympic Committee followed three years later by implementing their drug testing program during the 1968 summer Olympic games. Approximately twenty years later, the NCAA followed suit and began testing their athletes at championship events in 1986.
Random Testing of High School Athletes Ruled Unconstitutional in Washington
Drug testing at the collegiate level is widespread and widely accepted. However, drug testing athletes at the high school level is a controversial subject. Recently, a Washington Supreme Court ruled that drug testing athletes without probable cause was a violation of a person’s privacy (“Un”Reasonable Search in High School Athletes, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, February, 2009) thereby violating their constitutional rights.
The court ruled that “a person's privacy interest in his or her body and bodily functions is one that Washington citizens have held and should be entitled to hold safe from governmental trespass”. This was based on student-athletes being required to go into a bathroom stall and provide a urine sample.
The second part of the ruling was based on the justification of drug testing student athletes. The court ruled that there was no evidence that student-athletes used drugs at a higher rate than other students.
Implications resulting from this ruling included the following:
- School boards must demonstrate reasonable suspicion of a student-athlete before testing for drugs
- Methods of drug testing must not be extensively intrusive in light of the nature of the intrusion
- Personnel must be prepared and properly trained to provide all privacy rights to student-athletes under both the U.S. and state constitutions.
Other states are handling high school athletic drug testing differently. Texas implemented a drug testing program to test between 40,000 and 50,000 athletes by the end of the 2008-2009 school year at a cost of 6 million (National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s News, May, 2009).
Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois also have drug testing policies for high school student athletes on a smaller scale. Student athletes are randomly tested in Illinois during playoffs. Florida and New Jersey currently test only 1,200 student athletes each year.
Educating High School Athletes
Because the trend of testing student athletes at the college level is widely accepted, testing at the high school level will continue unless the state courts rule the practice as unconstitutional. However, as long as drug testing exists, the focus needs to be towards educating student athletes about the physiological and psychological effects of street drug use and performance enhancing drugs on their bodies.
Another factor that needs to be talked about with young people is the use of supplements and their implications during drug testing. Supplements are not FDA regulated meaning that there is no federal governing body testing and providing oversight as to the content and validity of supplements.
Athletes may be taking a supplement that may test positive in a drug test without knowing it. Because of this, athletes need to be educated as to the risks of taking supplements.
Last, student athletes need to be educated about the drugs that are on the banned list of substances. Several on-line resources are available including the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's free resource - Drug Reference Online, and the World Anti-Doping Agency's website.
A comprehensive educational program specifically addressing banned substances, supplements, performance enhancing drugs, and testing protocol should be implemented in all high school athletic programs.
What do you think about this article?
More in Health & Wellness
Latest Articles