Thursday, August 8, 1996

Cleburne Approves Mandatory Drug Testing For High School Athletes

From staff and wire reports

CLEBURNE - High school football players in Cleburne will be tested for marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines and other drugs starting next week in what appears to be Texas' first school district to require athlete drug testing.

The school board in Cleburne, a town of 22,000 about 30 miles south of Fort Worth, approved $10,000 for its high school athlete drug screening program in June. The board is expected to approve the specifics at a meeting on Monday.

Bill Farney, executive director of the University Interscholastic League, said Tuesday he doesn't know of any other school district in the state that requires drug testing for athletes.

Cleburne athletic director Dennis Parker says Cleburne's first drug tests will be administered to football players on Aug. 17. Athletes in other sports will be tested before their season begins.

School officials said the testing program is needed because national surveys show increased drug use among teen-agers and because of the district's own experience with drug abuse.

"The intent of this program is to give kids an opportunity to say no," Cleburne school board member Bill Gray said. "It is not intended to catch someone. It is intended to give people an out."
"We are not looking to be trend-setters," Gray said.

Robert Starr, athletic director for the Abilene schools, said drug use has never been a problem for athletes in the Abilene school system.

"Our position is, we know that does go on, but in our particular setting, there's not been any evidence of it," Starr said. "It's not anecessary thing for us to do. We've not been plagued with that at all, and I don't anticipate seeing anything like that here."

Art Briles, Stephenville's athletic director, said that although he's not opposed to the idea, he is concerned with where to draw the line.

"If you test athletes, I'm not sure you wouldn't want to test all extracurricular activities," Briles said. "The better solution might be random drug testing. There's always the threat of testing, so it serves the same purpose.

"How we deter it is by making young athletes understand the right choices that need to be made. I think prevention is the best key."

Cleburne used to be in the same district as Stephenville and Brownwood but has moved to another district.

Parker, who proposed the idea to the Cleburne board, said he hopes the school is setting a standard for other high schools.

"We tested them in college. And that's when it hit me," said Parker, who coached at the University of North Texas before coming to Cleburne three years ago. "I had a kid at North Texas who said, 'I am glad you test. It gives me an opportunity to tell them no.' "

A 1995 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that drug testing of high school athletes was constitutional opened the door for him to research ways to bring screening to Cleburne, Parker said.

Students will be tested for several illegal drugs. Parker said costs prohibit testing for steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.

Students will be banned from participation for a sports season after two positive tests, Parker said.
Senior basketball player Blake Curtis, 17, says he thinks it's unfair but understandable to single out athletes for testing.

"I think it's because the littler kids, they kind up look up and say, "I want to be a football player like my brother,' " Curtis told Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW. "They don't want the athletes to be, like, drugheads or something."