Marion County Student Athletes can get high on drugs and no one in the school will be able to test and catch them for using illegal drugs while on a school sponsored sports team. The State of Florida has no more funds available for drug testing students so from now on they will not be offering this valuable service and tool for educators to enforce the no drug policy for Marion County Team Sports.
This is such a shame because having clean healthy kids on the sports teams is just good business for the school systems and penalizing any student who violates the no drug policy helps keep the team clean and sober and free from scandals or personal health problems. Making sure the kids on the local sport team are drug free is important for all students who should know that using illegal drugs is wrong and there are penalties for their usage.
With all the money we have to catch criminals it seems odd we’ll quit testing school age children for drugs but this is how things go in the new Rick Scott economy where kids are paying for the past excesses of our leaders by losing out on valuable services such as these. Having a drug free sports team should be a banner of pride for any school system but not for schools in Marion County who are now going to have to deal with illegal drug use without their most valuable tool.
One has to wonder if the high school students were celebrating with a drug party last night as they came to realize there is no one testing them for drugs in order to be on the school team.
No more drug testing in Marion County schools
Marion County schools will not be able to rule out drugs with their student athletes anymore. The school district is doing away with drug testing for sports and after-school activities beginning July 1st due to budget cuts.
“This is a significant program that we believed in and we’ve had good results with, but its just another example of programs that don’t tie in directly with instructional learning in the classroom,” said Kevin Christian, public relations officer for the district.
The federal grant money the schools were using for the drug-testing program ran out about two years ago.
May 7, 2011 at 9:26 pm
I think this article is presumptuous of this topic. Kids on sports teams are usually ambitious go getters, not drug users. The writer of this article is ridiculous to think that just because kids aren’t going to be tested for drugs any longer for sports in Marion County Schools that they’ll all start using drugs.
May 11, 2011 at 9:56 am
Sara, I agree that kids on sports teams are generally not drug users and i don’t actually think the kids all ran out to use drugs. I think my point was more that it is the schools responsibility and in their best interest to protect the integrity of local sports teams. School age children should understand that drug use will hamper your abilities to participate in society which is a reality. They will be tested at any other level of play in most sports and they should be in high school sports as well.