Voluntary Program First of Kind in State : Simi High Schools to Test Athletes for Drugs

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 pre-season 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, said Terry Dobbins, Simi Valley High School athletic director.

The testing of athletes, who comprise nearly a quarter of the student body of both schools, will be conducted as part of the pre-season physical examination required for all team members, he said.

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

“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.

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

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, with the physicians making suggestions to the parents.

“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. The urine samples will be tested for alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, steroids and other drugs.

Shapiro and other school officials said they will consider expanding the program to students who participate in all forms of extracurricular activities, and then to nearly all the 4,000 students who attend the two high schools.

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

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 because “the only thing that could happen . . . if a kid has a drug problem (is) the parents are going to find out.”