Official wants Texas high school athletes tested

Original AP thru ESPN.com
AUSTIN, Texas -- 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.

more: sports.espn.go.com...


New Jersey, New York, and Illinois too:

Original Steroid Nation
Texas High Schools to begin steroid testing?
As reported here(KLTV7), Texas high schools are considering anti-doing measures. We have reported that New Jersey high schools plan to test high schoolers, and Illinois is considering such tests. We also documented a New York call for high school testing.

When national surveys find that 4 to 6 percent of high school students have illegally used steroids, that's a problem. This is is why New Jersey has become the first state to mandate random steroid tests for its high school athletes and why other states consider such proposals.

more: grg51.typepad.com...

More sites to check out:

www.wfaa.com...

seguingazette.com...

www.kgbt4.com...

What do you think? Is this just more political posturing? Will it do any good? Would you want your children tested?




[edit on 7-3-2007 by Royal76]

i'd want mandatory testing for these substances. not only do they hurt the sport, they hurt the athletes. eventually more and more athletes will be pressured into using these drugs to get a little bit further ahead, not realizing the long term damage they'll inflict.

What a sad state of affairs when high-school students are being tested for steroids and performance enhancing drugs. I thought that doing steroids was only left for narcissists and professional athletes?

I think this is a good thing to keep high-school sports at the level that they are at. There is absolutely no reason that some 17-18 year old should be juicing up before a big football game to lay the hits down harder.

Once again only in America...

I played a lot of Highschool sports. Football was my thing, I was pretty good at it especially at that level. Honestly I was never tempted after I learned about the shrinkage of the balls. That personally ended any specualation for me. I do like the level playing field were athelets are bases on their physical selves rather than the best the doctors can make. But I do worry about the privacy issues. I think they could probably make it a lot easier if they took them during the yearly physical, that would tell you right away. Or if someone starts acting strangely and is suspected. Then you have the lawyers involved, etc. Its a catch-22, if a school actively seperates a student because of suspectability, then the district can be sued.

Originally posted by Royal76
Honestly I was never tempted after I learned about the shrinkage of the balls. That personally ended any specualation for me.

I'll second that football is also huge here in ohio and some of my teammates were using the stuff but I could never put my balls at risk

What if you end up like bob on fight cub....no thanks

[edit on 8-3-2007 by Scrub]

He was the 2nd overall pick in the draft from Michigan State. In college he was destroying everything that moved. They did this whole big article on him and guys like me thought he was pretty cool being an O-lineman and all. Then he turned into a bust. I saw him in a interview a couple of years ago and he had major..I'm talking stripper big man boobs. He was going in for breast reduction surgery. Man he was all screwed up, he was on all kinds of roids.

Sounds like a good idea as long as those pushing for testing are willing to be tested for drugs like coke and meth and weed and alcohol abuse too.

Strange how authority figures are more than willing to have others scrutinized but balk when it comes to their personal life.

There should be a test for hypocrisy too and if found dirty; 1 day in the barrel.

[edit on 8-3-2007 by whaaa]

original whaaa
There should be a test for hypocrisy too and if found dirty; 1 day in the barrel.

Yeah the current throwing water on the witch thing isn't working.

I am opposed to such a thing.

It is invasion of privacy.

It does not matter if they take them or not.


And whether it is fair or not does not matter, football is just a useless
displays of masculine violence and domination, and only furthers overt
competitiveness.

Recently I've learned that they are planning on making it a responsibility of the School District to pay for the test. This has many problems that could make it not worth it.

1. The Districts will probably push the $ for the test off on the parents. Making sports only available for those with $, something I detest.

2. The poorer Districts are already having to cut certain small sports like wrestling, soccer, tennis already with the funding that they have. How are they suppost to afford to pay for a thousand kids per school, etc.