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With the announcement that Marion High School will implement a new procedure for student drug testing, officials at Carbondale Community High School say they are not following suit.
Beginning next month, Marion High School will begin random drug testing for students involved in athletics, extra-curricular activities and students with parking passes. The decision for testing, approved by the Marion Unit 2 School Board, came just months after the Jan. 2 decision of the Illinois High School Association to start testing student athletes for performance-enhancing drugs.
Students at Marion participating in extra-curricular activities are required to sign a waiver that would allow the random testing, said Marion High School Athletic Director Mike Chornak. He said an out-of-state third party would choose students at random to avoid any biases.
Aside from steroids and hormones, students in extra-curricular activities would be tested for recreational drugs such as marijuana and cocaine. First offenders would be forced to miss 20 percent of the season and multiple-offenders would no longer have eligibility.
Chornak said the board had been discussing the issue for the last few years and modeled the policy after existing policies in Carterville, Herrin and Harrisburg. The testing was implemented to deter students from using illegal drugs, not to punish them, Chornak said.
"This is something that the IHSA started doing so we felt like it was time for us to start doing something as well. Have we seen an increase? No. We just felt like this was the right time to do it," Chornak said.
Officials at Carbondale Community High School say there are no talks of developing their own testing program.
"We are going to follow the current IHSA policy. Anything further than that would be a school board issue," said Carbondale Athletic Director Rick Moss. Carbondale Community High School District 165 Superintendent Steve Sabens said the district approves the new IHSA regulations, but is not actively pursuing its own drug testing policies. The school's administration has discussed testing policies in the past, but the school decided against implementing one, Sabens said.
Carbondale's student athletes expressed mixed feelings about the testing, but they say they have seen some degree of drug use at their campus.
Tyrone Davis, a 16-year-old sophomore at Carbondale Community High School, said he has not seen the use of performance-enhancers, but recreational drugs are still present. Davis, a member of the basketball team, said schools should focus on students who clearly show problems rather than random testing.
"When the season's over people are going to go back to doing what they're doing so what's the reason to drug test?" Davis said. "If you know that your student is doing it then maybe."
Caroline Kwak, a 15-year-old sophomore on the golf team, said she has also heard of recreational drug use among her classmates, but does not think performance-enhancers are as popular. Kwak said implementing a drug testing policy would be a positive action towards deterring drug use among students.
"I think (drug testing) is really important because drugs are not good for you. If you're going to be an athlete, you should take care of yourself," Kwak said.
For the past five years, Carterville High School has had a policy similar to the one Marion has developed, said Assistant Principal and Athletic Director Todd Rogers.
Rogers said he applauds Marion's efforts and would like to see more area schools follow suit.
"[The testing] is good for the students' health, safety, and welfare," Rogers said. "It's great to see other schools doing it."
ISHA Assistant Executive Director Kurt Gibson said the association's attention was directed towards athletic drug use after talking to school officials who said they were concerned about the issue. Gibson said the IHSA testing would occur at random during the post season for each sport. Third-party administrators would choose schools and students randomly and have them submit a urine sample that would be tested for anabolic steroids, stimulants, diuretics and peptide hormones and analogues.
Justin Lange can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 258 or jlange@siu.edu.
