Texas OKs steroid tests at H.S. level

05/29/07

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas public high school athletes would face mandatory random steroid testing under a bill given final approval Monday by the Legislature and sent to Gov. Rick Perry.

If Perry allows the bill to become law — he has not publicly expressed opposition — the state could begin testing tens of thousands of students at the start of the coming football season. It would be the largest high school steroids testing program in the country.

Steroid testing has been a major component of Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst's campaign to protect children. Athletes who test positive, or refuse to be tested, could be suspended from play. Athletes in all sports, from football to wrestling to tennis, could be tested.

The House of Representatives voted 140-4 to send the bill to Perry. It requires the state to pay for testing, rather than force schools to raise ticket prices to cover the cost. The University Interscholastic League, the state's governing body for public school sports, will run the program.

The Senate's original plan was to test at least 22,000 students — about 3 percent of the 730,000 of high school athletes — for about $4 million per year.

About 130 of Texas' 1,300 public high schools already test for steroids.

New Jersey became the first state in the country to start a statewide testing policy for high school athletes last year. Its initial testing for performance-enhancing drugs among 150 random samples taken last fall didn't produce a positive result, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association reported earlier this year.