Begins in Fall : Simi Schools to Test Athletes for Drug Use

The Simi Valley Unified School District will begin voluntary drug testing of all high school athletes next fall in a program that officials said is the first of its kind in the state.

The district’s school board Tuesday voted unanimously to begin preseason and weekly random drug tests for all students participating in after-school sports at Simi Valley and Royal High Schools.

Drug-testing programs at other high schools are either limited to random testing or to only a few sports, officials said. Simi Valley District students who do not want to participate, or whose parents object, will not be required to submit to the tests.

Beginning next fall, nearly 1,000 boys and girls who participate in 19 sports at the district’s two high schools will be asked to submit to a drug test at the beginning of the season, Simi Valley High School Athletic Director Terry Dobbins said. The testing of athletes, who constitute nearly a quarter of the total student body of both schools, will be conducted as part of the preseason physical required for all team members, he said.

In addition, students will be asked to sign up for participation in random drug tests, which will be given to five athletes each week during the season, Dobbins said.

‘Reason to Say No’

“We want to give these students a reason to say no to drugs and alcohol,” said Allan Jacobs, the district’s associate superintendent of educational services. He said a 1985 survey conducted by UCLA researchers showed that more than 40% of 11th-grade students in the district had used drugs at least once over a six-month period.

The names of students who sign up for drug testing will be kept confidential, Jacobs said. The results of the drug tests will be given by physicians to the students and their parents, he said.

“If the tests are positive, then the doctor will phone the parents and give suggestions such as whether to have a second test, to confront the student or whether the student should be put in a detox program,” Jacobs said.

One faculty member at each high school will keep lists of the names of students participating in the drug-testing program, but that person will not be allowed to reveal the names to other school officials or coaches, Jacobs said.

Students’ urine samples will be tested at a local hospital lab for alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, steroids and other drugs.

Simi Valley Board of Education President Mimi Shapiro said support for the drug-testing program, estimated to cost $4,000, has come from administrators, coaches, parents and students. The board has been studying the issue since the fall, she said.

“I have heard comments from some parents who are against the program,” Shapiro said. “But if our goal is to help young people, to save lives, then how can they be against it?”

Expansion Considered

Shapiro and other school officials said they will consider expanding the program to include students who participate in all forms of extracurricular activities, such as the pep squad, debate team or choir.

School officials said they eventually hope to be able to afford voluntary drug tests for all of the nearly 4,000 students who attend the two high schools.

Athletic Director Dobbins, who researched drug-testing programs at other schools and helped create the Simi Valley plan, said the program does not infringe on the rights of students.

“This is not a threatening program,” Dobbins said. “The only thing that could happen is that if a kid has a drug problem, then the parents are going to find out.”

The drug-testing program “gives the parents a chance to be parents and do something about” a student’s drug use, Dobbins said. “It won’t be the school’s responsibility,” he added.

Simi Valley High School sophomore Dave Penrod, a member of the school basketball team, said he did not think the drug-testing program would cause any problem among school athletes. “As long as you don’t have anything to hide, it shouldn’t bother you,” he said.

Simi High track coach Tom King said he opposed the program at first as an invasion of privacy but changed his mind when he found there would be no punitive measures taken against students.

Members of the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday gave tentative approval to a voluntary drug-testing program at Granada Hills High School that will at random select and test student athletes. It is only the second such program in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Westlake High School, the only other school to have a similar program in Ventura County, has a voluntary random drug-testing program for athletes.

San Diego school officials agreed in December to begin a voluntary, random drug-testing program for all students at seven high schools there.