Senate Bill No. 154
(By Senators Barnes, Yoder, Guills, Wells, Caruth, Love, Sprouse,
Sypolt and Unger)
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[Introduced January 19, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Education; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §18-2-25a, relating
to authorizing the West Virginia Secondary School Activities
Commission to create a mandatory drug-testing program;
prohibiting performance-enhancing drugs; creating a medical
advisory committee; publishing a list of banned substances;
penalties and appeals; and granting rule-making authority.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-2-25a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-25a. Mandatory drug testing program; general prohibition
against performance enhancing drugs; list of banned substances; consent; random selection of
student-athletes; testing; positive results;
penalties; appeals; renewal; and rule making
authority
.
(a) The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission
(WVSSAC)shall establish a mandatory drug testing program for
student athletes, who have qualified, as individuals or as members
of a team, for state championship competition.
(b) It shall be considered a violation of the commission's
rules for any student-athlete to possess, ingest, or otherwise use
any substance on the list of banned substances, without written
prescription by a fully licensed physician, as recognized by the
American Medical Association, to treat a medical condition with
which the student-athlete has been diagnosed. Violations found as
a result of the commission's random testing will be penalized in
accordance with this section.
(c) The commission shall create a medical advisory committee
which shall prepare a list of all banned substances. The list will
be prepared annually by the medical advisory committee, and
approved by the commission.
(d) The commission shall publish the list and make it
available to all participating members, teams, student-athletes or
any other interested persons.
(e) The commission shall promulgate rules to establish a manner to publish the list of banned substances and inform
student-athletes of their rights and responsibilities under the
program.
(f) Before participating in interscholastic sports, the
student-athlete and the student-athlete's parent or guardian must
consent, in writing, to random testing in accordance with this
program. Failure to sign a consent form renders the
student-athlete ineligible to participate in state championship
competitions.
(g) The commission shall promulgate rules to establish the
manner in which a random sample of student-athletes participating
in championship competition will be tested. Sixty percent of all
tests will be from football, wrestling, track and field, swimming
and baseball. The remaining forty percent of all tests will be
from all other WVSSAC sports.
(h) Drug tests will be administered by a laboratory certified
by the National Laboratory Certification Program of the United
States Department of Health and Human Services that perform drug
testing services.
(i) No test will be considered a positive result unless the
approved laboratory reports a positive result, and the medical
advisory committee created in accordance with this article confirms
that there was no medical reason for the positive result. A "B"
sample shall be available in the event of an appeal.
(j) If the certified laboratory reports that a
student-athlete's sample has tested positive, and the medical
advisory committee confirms that there is no medical reason for a
positive result, a penalty shall be imposed unless the student-
athlete proves, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he or she
bears no fault or negligence for the violation.
(k) The commission shall promulgate rules to establish a
process by which a student-athlete who has a positive test sample
may contest findings or decisions made by the commission or by the
medical advisory committee.
(l) Any person who tests positively in a commission
administered test, or any person who refuses to provide a testing
sample, or any person who reports his or her own violation, will
immediately forfeit his or her eligibility to participated in
WVSSCA competition for a period of one year from the date of the
test. That person will also forfeit any individual honor earned
while in violation. No person who tests positive, refuses to
provide a test sample, or who reports his or her own violation will
resume eligibility until he or she has undergone counseling and
produced a negative test result.
(m) All test results will be considered confidential and will
only be disclosed to the individual, his or her parent or legal
guardian, and his or her school.
(n) The commission shall annually compile and report the results of the testing program.
(o) The executive committee shall annually determine whether
this policy shall be renewed or discontinued.
(p) In addition to the above, the commission shall propose
rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of
article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to carry out the
purposes and intent of this section and to enable the commission to
exercise its powers and duties conferred upon it by this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
authorize the West
Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission to create a
mandatory drug testing program, enunciating a general prohibition
against the use of performance enhancing drugs, creating a medical
advisory committee, publishing a list of banned substances,
penalties, appeals, and granting rule making authority.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.