In the midst of steroid scandals in professional sports, lawmakers are proposing some safeguards for student athletes and proposed a new bill that will handle similar cases in the young athletes. The proposal was made by state Sen. Michael Switalski. The Senate Bill (SB) 278 aims to not only mandate student-athlete testing for performance enhancing drugs and counseling sessions. The proposed bill will also require high schools to make an annual report to the state of the total number of students who were tested positive. It was already referred to the Senate Education Committee.

Switalski said that there is a need for a law that would deter students from taking performance enhancing drugs even if there are pressures from their areas of endeavor. The senator said, “The huge pressure to perform well in high school athletics and the desire to gain a performance advantage over opponents has led to an increase in steroid abuse among high school athletes, numerous studies have shown.” To prevent the student athletes putting their lives at risks a random drug testing program with consequences, combined with an increased educational awareness, would serve as an effective deterrent to young athletes.

Another state senator said that instituting new laws will prevent problems in the local school where most of the times they were being sued for violation of human rights. According to state Sen. Nancy Cassis, there is no current state drug policy for testing and she believe this should be left to locally elected school boards. “The thing we have researched is that those school districts that have instituted such a policy reportedly are being sued by the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union). I know there are legal issues around that and just testing athletes vs. testing the whole school, for example. If you don’t have a reason to test someone, that could potentially violate one’s constitutional rights,” she added.

Moreover, Senator Cassis hopes that a new system should be in place where students, parents and coaches get involved in fighting performance enhancing drugs. She also noted that signing pledges not to use performance enhancing drugs while at the same time providing information and education on the potential side effects will help. She suggested that student may be removed or disallowed to participate in all the activities of the school if found guilty of using any performance enhancing drugs.

However, some school officials were not that eager to support the bill proposed by Switalski. They enumerated some of the reasons why introducing a new law will not really curtail the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in high schools.

The article of Andrew Sawmiller in the spinalcolumnonline.com mentioned some of the reactions of directors of different athletic organization.

Chris Ceresa, Milford High School Athletic Director

“Use of performance enhancing drugs by student-athletes is an issue his athletic system has been looking into, but there is no policy on the issue at the moment. “That is something we are going to continue to investigate,” he said. “Huron Valley would be very willing to consider this if we could do it on a cost-neutral basis and it was safe and good for kids.”

Steve Emery, Walled Lake Consolidated Schools Director of Athletics

“At this point in time, no, we don’t have a policy. That’s really something that has to come from the district; but for me personally, I probably wouldn’t support something like that because (in states where they did testing) it wasn’t worth the costs.”

John R. Johnson, communications director for the MHSAA.

“This is not the first time (such a) bill has been introduced. For all the noise about testing programs in Texas and Florida, it was a waste of time, energy and money. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. The MHSAA reinforces current laws and makes schools aware of them. Public Act 31 of 1990 requires a notice that possession or use of steroids is a crime. Public Act 187 of 1999 prohibits public school employees and volunteers from promoting or supplying dietary supplements which carry a notice of enhanced athletic performance.”

Trackback URI | Comments RSS