Nease will do testing for steroids, By: Christina Abel
Florida is now the third state to approve tests of student athletes for the drugs.
This year, for the first time, athletes from Nease and other Florida high schools must consent to be tested for steroids before they're allowed to play sports.
Nease Principal Linda Thomson said the testing won't have a big effect because only 1 percent of students across the state will be tested, but it's the first year students and their parents have to sign consent release forms for the drug testing.
"We won't have to change our way of doing business or anything," Thomson said Thursday. "But it's one more consent form that has to come into the office."
Gov. Charlie Crist supported the bill for a one-year, $100,000 pilot program that requires all high school football, softball, baseball and wrestling athletes in Florida to sign a waiver so they can be randomly tested for anabolic steroid use. Only 1 percent, or about 600 athletes, will be tested this year, but every student who wants to play has to sign before stepping onto the mat or field. Male and female athletes will be tested if they are involved with baseball, softball, girls flag football, boys football or boys and girls weight lifting.
The Florida High School Athletic Association will supervise the testing. Its membership includes 426 public schools and 224 private schools.
According to a report in USA Today, independent surveys estimate between 1.5 and 2 percent of Florida's high school athletes might be using steroids. That's about 4,000 of 215,000 student athletes.
Florida is the third state to enact steroid testing of high-school athletes, joining New Jersey and Texas, which began mandatory steroid testing of all public high school athletes last fall.
Thomson said the sports singled out - baseball, football, softball and wrestling - all require a certain degree of muscle mass or body weight.
She lauded the FHSAA for the new mandatory testing.
Here's how it will work: The school will come up with a roster of players for each of the specified sports; when the school is contacted for testing, they have 72 hours to submit an updated and complete roster to the FHSAA; the school will then be notified of the randomly selected students who will be tested; the FHSAA will give the school seven days' notice before someone from the National Center for Drug Free Sport, a monitoring organization, will come to the school to collect urine samples from the selected students.
There are stiff penalties for students who test positive for steroids and for schools that allow the athletes who were not listed on the roster to play the sport.
Students who test positive are suspended from practices and games for 90 school days. On the 60th day of the suspension, the student will be retested.
If they pass, they can be immediately reinstated, if they fail, they are suspended until they test negative.
