Drug Tests of Athletes at Banning High OKd

Voluntary drug screening of student athletes at Banning High School in Wilmington, a school known for its championship football teams, will begin in September under a pilot program approved Monday by the Los Angeles school board.

The board voted 6-0 to allow Banning officials to ask approximately 400 students involved in sports programs to submit to the voluntary testing. It is the first program of its kind in the district.

Parents of the athletes will be required to sign a consent form permitting their child to participate in the urine screening, board member John Greenwood, who proposed the program, said.

Five students will be chosen at random each week. A student may decline to take the test at any time, Greenwood said, but the school will notify the parents of the refusal.

The testing will be conducted free of charge by San Pedro Peninsula Hospital. Greenwood said the hospital will not release the results to school officials but will give the information to the students and their parents. A student whose test is positive will be screened a second time to be sure that the results are correct.

A student who is found to be using any drugs other than prescribed medications will be referred by the hospital to a counseling program, and his or her parents will be notified, Greenwood said.

“I hope (the testing) will put out a counterpressure to the peer pressure that now exists to use drugs,” Greenwood said. “I hope it will give some youngsters who feel the pressure a reason to say no.”

Greenwood said the program was requested by Banning administrators, student athletes and their parents who were concerned about drug abuse. The students will also hear lectures on drugs and their effects, he said.

Greenwood said he hopes other schools will initiate drug-screening programs of their own. Banning officials may expand the program to include other students after reviewing it at the end of the year, he added.