Good parenting needed to deter teen drug usage
One of my earliest childhood memories is climbing up the steps of the Orange Bowl Stadium in 1972 and celebrating the Dolphins perfect season. I remember sitting atop my mother's shoulders while we sang "Miami has the Dolphins, the greatest football team; we take the ball from goal to goal like no one's ever seen," and thinking that the men on the field were surely superhuman.
Over three decades later, the Orange Bowl Stadium is just a memory. My son thinks Jimmy Buffett's Fins is the Dolphin's fight song, and while there are few similarities between his childhood and mine, he believes athletes are superhuman, and so the impact that professional athletes have on children hasn't changed one bit.
Some may argue that as a result of social media, fantasy leagues, reality TV, and sports networks, such impact has grown, since today we know more about athletes than ever before. So, as a school board member, I wasn't surprised when touring an elementary school I heard an 11 year old mention Alex Rodriguez' use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs).
The truth is a much-needed conversation about the use of PEDs has been brewing for months.
In 2012, for example, the NFL banned two players for the use of the amphetamine Adderall. In July 2012, one of America's greatest athletes, Lance Armstrong, shocked the world when he admitted the United States Anti-Doping Agency's charge against his use of PEDs was correct. He was stripped of his seven titles, his Olympic medal, and banned from competitive sports. The Biogenesis investigation revealed the use of PEDs in over 11 Major League Baseball teams; it also included use of PEDs by minors, confirming that the use of PEDs is no longer limited to professional athletes.
The dozen unnamed minors who were allegedly accompanied by their parents to purchase sports performance packages that included HGH testosterone have sent shock waves throughout school districts in the country. The idea that parents would knowingly expose their adolescent children to the known risks associated with PEDs in order to make them more competitive, is illogical since in the battle against drug use, parents are the ones who have forced school districts to ensure we are doing everything in our power to provide a safe, drug free environment.
The Florida High School Athletic Association responded to the Biogenesis scandal by encouraging school districts to crack down on abuses by testing high school athletes for PEDs. The athletic association's executive director, Roger Dearing, stated: " [w]e must draw a line in the sand against performance-enhancing drugs....School districts cannot tolerate coaches who encourage or look the other way when they know student-athletes are using performance-enhancing drugs." To date, less than a handful of school districts have done so.
At Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the fourth largest school district in the nation, we have started the conversation by approving a feasibility study on the cost of random drug testing for students who participate in extracurricular activities. We will still have to decide if we move forward, once we establish the cost and what the policy will entail.
Whether we approve random drug testing or not, the use of drugs to enhance performance (be it athletic or academic) is becoming the norm and the desire to succeed is driving students (and some parents) to cross the line in the hope of outperforming their peers.
I maintain that as policy makers and parents, we have an obligation to teach our children about consequences; beyond the 'say no to drugs' conversation, we need to acknowledge that looking the other way when minors use PEDs is wrong.
We need to draw a line for minors because they lack the legal, physiological and psychological capacity to make these life-altering choices. We must create a tangible drug use deterrent for adolescents, because while they dream of fame and fortune, we the adults have been entrusted with their health and well-being.
It's not an easy task, but one day when they have children, they will recognize that while we don't get medals or trophies, being a responsible parent takes superhuman strength and courage.
Raquel Regalado is a Miami-Dade School Board member.
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