BIBLE BELT EDUCATORS NIX ATHLETE SCREENING

A rural Manitoba school division has just said no to drug testing.

Trustees in the Garden Valley School Division in Winkler unanimously voted
Tuesday night against a plan to force student athletes as young as 13 to
submit to random drug tests.

The controversial policy would have been a first in Canada.

"At this point in time, we will not introduce the drug testing program,"
Garden Valley superintendent Dom Wilkins told The Sun yesterday.

Privacy concerns

Trustees approved in principle the drug policy last year but did not
implement it then because of privacy concerns.

In a report released yesterday, Manitoba ombudsman Barry Tuckett stated
Garden Valley's drug policy "would not be lawful, necessary (or) effective .."

"It is our opinion that the random drug-testing program under the proposed
policy would result in serious and unnecessary violations of students'
privacy," Tuckett warned in the report, which was submitted to Garden
Valley trustees for review in September.

Wilkins said given Tuckett's findings, the board decided to vote down the
proposals.

The school division initially wanted to begin randomly conducting drug
tests on about 250 students between Grades 9 and 12 who played
extracurricular sports at Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler.

Urine samples would have been tested for several drugs, possibly including
marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, heroin and morphine.

Alcohol and anabolic steroids would not have been included in random drug
tests due to limitations of urinalysis, according to the division.

In his report, Tuckett noted Garden Valley advised his office they were
concerned student athletes who consumed drugs would pose a safety risk to
themselves and others.

"Although we understand the genuine concern for student safety," Tuckett
wrote in the report, "the division could not identify any instance when
students had been injured as a result of using drugs."

Tuckett said that "makes sense" because "most students reportedly are not
using ... drugs during school hours or activities."

Tuckett suggested it was not the school division's responsibility to police
students on their own time.