Check on Drug Testing Security
Keeping secrets in many high schools is virtually impossible. Students sometimes know about staff changes before the affected teachers are informed.
So concern expressed at a Switzerland of Ohio Board of Education meeting a few days ago, that athletes somehow learn when they are to be subjected to allegedly random drug tests, comes as no surprise.
Board members voted last summer to implement the drug testing program. It involves testing of both faculty and students involved in athletics. Tests are administered to the athletes before their first games of the season, then later in the year at unannounced times.
But a parent told board members the tests may not be a surprise to those being checked for drugs. “I have children in high school and I hear a lot more than I want to hear, and that is they knew it was coming,” she said.
School Superintendent John Hall responded that, “Literally, I’m the only one in the district that knows the dates…” Any leak regarding the tests must have occurred outside the school district, he added.
There may not be any leaks. Students may be guessing.
Then again, they may have found a way to get the information.
Board members should take the parent’s comments seriously. A security check should be conducted to determine whether somehow, perhaps by hacking into a computer, student-athletes are ensuring there is nothing random or surprising about when drug tests are to be administered.
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