Lynchburg schools student athletes' drug tests will have to change

Lynchburg schools officials decided to scale back drug testing for student athletes next year as a result of the budget crunch. Now, they are discussing how to conduct a significantly smaller number of tests.

During Tuesday’s school board meeting, changes to the drug testing policy were reviewed. Officials did not take action, but instead proposed policy changes that will come back before the board at its next meeting.

The board voted during the budget process to move from testing all student athletes to random testing and it must change policy to comply with the decision.

“Even with policy change it doesn’t change the board’s philosophy,” board member Keith Anderson said.

Officials emphasized Tuesday that they remain committed to the testing, but must scale back next year as a cost-saving measure. The school system first implemented testing in 1990.

Currently, the division spends a total of $40,000 to test each student athlete at least once. Next year, the budget allocates only $10,000 for the testing.

Al Coleman, director of secondary education, said 1,347 tests are currently conducted. Next year the division will be able to conduct approximately 253 tests. The cost of each test, he said, is $39.50. If students test positive, a second confirmation test is administered, which is an additional cost.

Coleman said the testing process must be random and he suggested testing be done throughout the year. He added there should also be some formula to determine how many students are tested at each high school on each team. Coleman said tests could be divided by season and team and the number tested based on a ratio.

There are 71 teams total: 19 in the fall, 25 in the winter and 27 in the spring. The number on each team varies and there are more students at Glass than at Heritage.

“I would like as much of a formula as possible. I don’t want to say let’s test four more football players because we have four more tests. I want it to be a ratio thing,” Coleman said, adding all students on all teams should be subject to testing.

Coleman is expected to come back to the board with the policy’s final wording May 19.

In other news, the board:

w Reviewed the 2008 Lynchburg Youth Survey, which was conducted in October. The survey is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey and surveys students in sixth, ninth and 12th grades.

The results allow comparisons of youth health behaviors in 2008 with those in 2005 when a previous survey was conducted, and show how area findings compare nationally. Officials noted for the most part Lynchburg results were similar to national findings, with a few exceptions.

For example, more Lynchburg students reported trying to quit smoking than their national counterparts. Among the 12th-grade students surveyed, 18 percent of local students tried to quit smoking compared with 15 percent nationally. Lynchburg’s percentage of 12th-graders who have ever smoked regularly and who smoked one day in the past month was slightly higher than the national number.

Another notable difference officials cited Tuesday was the percentage of 12th-grade students who had sex. Locally, 47 percent of high school seniors had sex, compared with a national figure of 64 percent.