TOO FAR

Drug-Testing High-Schoolers Places State In Parent's Role

The governing body with oversight of high school athletics proposed this
week to test student athletes for steroid use, basing its actions on rumor
and assumption.

While recent reports estimate steroid use among professional athletes as
high as 50 percent, the number of high-schoolers taking
performance-enhancing drugs is unknown, the Associated Press stated.
Unknown because high-schoolers are not tested.

Yet.

University Interscholastic League officials said this week the committee
was considering drug-testing high-school athletes, perhaps starting with
random postseason testing of teams participating in the playoffs.

"It is a problem in Texas, especially in football," said Dr. Alan Stockard,
a Fort Worth physician who sits on the medical advisory board, in an AP
story. "I see it myself and I hear coaches talk about an average kid who
leaves school in May and comes back in August looking like the Incredible
Hunk."

Coaches should be concerned about the harms their players inflict on their
bodies, as much as other educators worry about the junk food put in their
stomachs. But drug-testing minors encourages a role reversal:

Transforming coaches into parents.

It's an alarming trend, however, that finds the state filling parental
shoes. And we're not sure, especially in this case, that the state needs to
replace parents. Surely, concerned coaches should be aware of the string
bean who literally returns to school as the big man on campus.

But parents must take the responsibility for what's put in their child's
body. The community must take responsibility, must say, "Hey, we're worried
about you. We don't like what you're doing to your body."

The state should get into the game last, after parents and the community
have failed. When all else fails, then the state should police our actions.
We're just not sure all else has failed.