Board Votes To Expand Drug Testing Program Covers All Athletes At Lc Unless Parents Refuse

All athletes at Lewis and Clark High School will be asked to enroll in a drug-testing program this fall.

Spokane School District 81 board members voted unanimously Wednesday to expand a small testing program for the school’s football players to all sports teams.

They added a new rule, too. Anyone caught cheating on the test is suspended from the team for the season.

Last year, two boys added a chemical to their urine samples to try to camouflage drug use, authorities said.

Educators called the new plan an exciting step forward, despite claims from some athletes that team morale will drop.

“If you’re clean, you don’t have anything to worry about,” said girls basketball coach Jim Redmond. “You just go on with life and accept that’s the way it is if you want to be an athlete.”

Basketball team captain Mary Thompson said she’s among the students vehemently opposed to testing.

“I personally think that makes us look worse,” she said. “People will say, ‘Oh, Lewis and Clark has a problem with drugs.”’

According to a recent LC survey, some people already have that perception. On a questionnaire completed by 25 coaches, varsity football players and parents, 20 said they considered drug abuse a problem among Lewis and Clark students.

Eighteen said drugs were also a problem among the school’s athletes.

Only two said they opposed drug testing for philosophical reasons.

“It implicates innocent individuals and makes them prove their innocence,” one wrote.

Redmond said he wishes other Spokane high schools would test athletes for drugs, too, so Lewis and Clark students wouldn’t be singled out. So far, though, no other District 81 schools have tried it.

Principal Mike Howson said athletes must get a parent’s signature early on if they don’t want to take drug tests. Otherwise, many - if not all - athletes will be tested before the first game.

After that initial mass testing, a few students from every team will be selected randomly each week for tests.

They’ll take urine tests at nearby Deaconess Medical Center, and anyone who fails must complete a rehabilitation program and skip a couple of games, Howson said.

Anyone failing twice within a year will be suspended for the season.

Test results won’t be turned over to police, according to the new policy, and the names of those who don’t participate in testing will be kept confidential.

Three boys tested positive last year, including the two who tried to alter their results, Howson said.

When the Deaconess lab detected a problem, the pair admitted to lacing their samples with a chemical purchased from a drug paraphernalia shop.

“I guess we should’ve realized that kind of thing was easy for young people to get,” Howson said.

Board members approved the expanded testing Wednesday with no debate, although member Rob Fukai said he’ll want to monitor costs.

Next year’s expenses are expected to run about $50 a test for a total of $30,000, said Forness. The expense will be paid by a statewide program, Washington Drug Free Youth, which gets contributions from all the city’s hospitals.

“This is not cheap,” Howson said.

It may not be easy, either.

Thompson, the basketball team captain, predicted athletes will be furious when they find out about the expanded testing, because many students didn’t even know it was being considered.

“I’m very disappointed,” Thompson said. “I don’t think anyone knew.”

, DataTimes