North Bend schools to drug test athletes

NORTH BEND, Ore.-- Athletes at North Bend Schools will now be required to take a drug test before participating in extracurricular activities.

The North Bend School Board approved the new policy at a meeting last week.

All students wanting to participate in extracurricular activities will be tested on a random day before their sport's season begin.

North Bend Athletic Director Mike Forrester said that tests will be done privately in the school's locker rooms.

"This will be a private test," Forrester said. "Students will not know each other's results unless they tell each other."

Forrester said students who may have been using drugs and also participating in activities have had time to sober up.

"We told our coaches more than a year ago that we were considering a new drug testing policy, and we asked them to make their athletes know about the new policy being created," he said.

But Forrester also said the new policy should not be seen as a "Got ya!" tactic.

"Our goal here is not to catch kids that are using drugs," he said. "Our goal here is to give students a good viable reason not to use them."

Forrester said students are embracing the new policy as a viable excuse not to use drugs.

"We have heard from many students that they want this policy," Forrester said. "It is a legitimate reason they can avoid peer-pressure because now they have something important riding on whether or not they use drugs."

Forrester said drug testing for volleyball and football players will begin as soon as possible since those seasons are set to being in just a couple of weeks.