VISALIA CHEERLEADERS TO BE SUBJECT TO DRUG TESTING, JUST LIKE ATHLETES

High school cheerleaders have argued for years that they're athletes
- -- just like football, baseball and basketball players. Cheerleaders
do complex stunts, work out with weights, and practice from June to
March.

Now cheerleaders in Visalia can prove their point: They're being
tested for drugs. Under a school policy approved last month,
cheerleaders must submit to the same random drug tests given to other
student-athletes. It appears to be the first district in the central
San Joaquin Valley to take this step.

Cheerleading coach Cara Carnahan at Mt. Whitney High welcomes the
change. "You don't want your daughter being thrown into the air by
anyone on drugs," Carnahan said. Visalia cheerleaders to be
drug-tested, just like athletes KURT HEGRE / THE FRESNO BEE

Cheerleaders from Mt. Whitney High School in Visalia do a routine
during a game against El Diamante.

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The change marks a big step toward recognizing cheerleaders as
athletes, a status that has been denied them for a long time.

"To me, cheerleading is a sport," said Redwood High cheer coach Lisa
Bardonnex. "It's an evolving thing. Are we recognized as athletes?
No."

It's annoying not to get more respect from peers for the physical
skill of cheer squads, said sophomore Gianna Buldo, 15, a cheerleader
at Redwood High.

"You have to physically lift people into the air," Gianna said. "A lot
of people don't realize this. They say it's not a sport. They think we
don't do anything, except cheer them on."

Many squads compete in regional and statewide competitions held on
weekends.

The more physically demanding cheer routines include the "basket toss"
- -- lofting a cheerleader and catching her -- tumbling, cartwheels,
back handsprings, the "bow-and-arrow," in which a girl is lifted into
the air while holding a stiff pose, and "the tuck," or flipping in the
air backwards.

The vexing question of what is an "activity" and what is "athletics"
is a touchy subject, admits Drew Sorensen, area administrator for
Visalia Unified. The state education code allows football players and
other athletes -- but not cheerleaders -- to play a sport in lieu of
taking state-required physical education classes.

Yet now the district is telling cheerleaders to prepare for random
drug testing.

" 'You always said we're not athletes,' " Sorensen said, quoting a
common refrain he's heard from cheerleaders.

The battle for cheerleaders to be recognized as athletes has been
going on for years, said Jim Lord, executive director of the American
Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators.

In his view, the "athlete" side of the controversy is winning. The
evidence is that more schools are including cheerleaders in random
drug-test programs, although no statistics are available.

For example, Manatee County School District in Bradenton, Fla.,
started a drug-testing program last year for student-athletes and
included cheerleaders. Skip Wilhoit, the coordinator, said no
cheerleaders have tested positive so far.

In Visalia, cheerleaders were added to the eight-year-old drug-test
program because of their role as high-profile students, said Lucinda
Awbrey, director of student services.

"Cheerleaders are part of the athletic program. They are role models,
just as athletes are," Awbrey said.

Plus, she added, "it's a safety issue." No incident involving
cheerleaders and drugs occurred to prompt the change.

School districts may say safety is the goal, but drug testing of high
schoolers presents "a privacy problem," said Michael Risher, an
American Civil Liberties Union attorney in San Francisco.

"As the price of being a cheerleader, you have to agree to being
summoned down the hall to pee in a cup," Risher said.

But privacy rights don't apply to high school athletes engaged in
interscholastic sports, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1995. Students
are minors and competitive athletics can be dangerous, so safety
concerns outweigh any minimal loss of privacy, the court ruled.

A 2002 Supreme Court decision extended that to extracurricular
activities of all kinds.

Coach Carnahan, who has been involved in cheer most of her life, notes
that the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled last month that cheerleading is
a "contact sport."

That court ruled that a cheerleader injured in a fall could not sue
the school district or fellow cheerleaders.

Now it's up to athletic departments, administrators, spectators,
students and society to see cheer as the sport it is, she said.

Because drug testing can cost tens of thousands of dollars yearly,
schools usually test only athletes -- and most schools don't test at
all. Only 43 school districts in California have mandatory testing,
according to the state Department of Education; nationwide, about 14%
of school districts have random drug testing, according to the federal
Centers for Disease Control.

But some school districts and schools in Fresno County have voluntary
drug testing for any student -- athlete or not -- who signs up with
parent permission.

They are Clovis Unified and Central Unified, and Fowler, Kingsburg,
Washington Union, Laton and Sierra high schools, according to the
Fresno County Office of Education, which administers a federal grant
that helps pay for drug testing. In all, 5,500 students are signed
up.

In all the programs, names are drawn randomly, and selected students
give a urine sample at school.

In Clovis, about 3,300 of 11,000 high school students are signed up
for the random testing, which takes place once a month.

It gives students an "easy out" if they face peer pressure to use
drugs, said Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants.

But the consequences of a positive test are "nonpunitive,"
administrators said.

In Visalia, only the school principal learns about positive tests and
then calls the student's parents. The student can stay on the team or
cheer squad but must meet with a substance abuse counselor, who will
decide whether the student needs to enroll in treatment.

In Clovis and the other schools with voluntary programs, test results
are sent only to parents, who are encouraged to use the information to
start a conversation with their child.

Clovis spends $15,000 to $20,000 yearly -- the federal grant is
covering the costs for three years -- and administrators get a summary.

According to the summaries, the district usually conducts about 500
tests yearly, of which 20 to 30 test positive for drugs or alcohol,
Avants said. In addition, some samples are randomly tested for steroids.

In Visalia, tests are done for 10 students per week at each high
school.

Four or five positive results a year occur, and most involve
marijuana, officials said. But some are for alcohol, which can be
detected within 24 hours of consumption. Marijuana, meth, cocaine,
barbiturates and now OxyContin are tested. Students are not screened
for steroids because of the high cost per test.

Visalia schools now spend $25,000 a year on testing, but budget cuts
could temporarily suspend the program, officials said.