AUSTIN, Texas, March 31 (UPI) -- Texas legislators are considering more testing for steroid use in public schools after one of the nation's largest cases was disclosed in a high school.
A committee heard testimony from education and athletic officials Thursday and raised the possibility of more testing, the Houston Chronicle reported. The state has no statewide policy mandating testing for athletes.
Rep. Kevin Bailey, chairman of the House Investigating and Ethics Committee, said after the hearing he thinks some type of random drug testing is the best way to go, but the committee will continue its investigation.
"We are sure something else needs to be done," said Bill Farney, director of the University Interscholastic League that governs high school sports in the state.
Nearly 200 Texas schools tested students for recreational drugs in 2002, but only 93 tested for performance-enhancing drugs, the UIL said. The number climbed to 250 in 2004, but an updated figure for steroid testing was not collected.
Nine students at Colleyville Heritage High School in North Texas confessed to using the steroids last spring in one of the nation's largest cases of confirmed use in a high school.
