State+Champs

Policy Paper

McKay BoldenState Champs Jason Grimes Mary Price Chesnutt Addie Ponder

There are many reasons why athletes decide to use performance-enhancing drugs. Even though there are benefits such as being a better sportsperson, the side effects of these drugs can be hazardous and using these substances can hinder the fairness when competing in a sport. Because of these factors, we have created a policy regarding performance-enhancing drugs to keep our students safe and to keep fairness in sports at Holy Innocents'.

The banned substances include creatine, anabolic steroids, steroid precursors, ephedra, and stimulants. Creatine is used to improve performance in sports. It causes a person to have a high burst of energy. Taking creatine can cause a lot of health issues such stomach pains, nausea, muscle cramps, and diarrhea. In worse cases in can cause kidney, liver, or heart problems. Anabolic steroids are another banned substance that builds muscle and increases endurance. When a male takes anabolic steroids it can cause increased acne and male pattern baldness, for a female it can cause a deep voice and dark facial hair. Steroid Precursors are also used to increase body mass and have the same side effects as steroids. They are also very harmful to a person’s body. Ephedra is a drug that athletes use to reduce physical fatigue, lose weight, and improve metal alertness. Taking these drugs can cause health problems such as strokes, seizures, heart attacks, and even death. Ephedra will also raise a person’s blood pressure and cause irregular heart rhythm. Stimulants are another drug that will elevate a person’s mood, and increase energy and alertness. All of these band substances can be very harmful to a person’s health.

Steroids are also illegal, meaning that it is illegal to possess them without a prescription given to you by a doctor no matter what state you are in. Therefore if a person has steroids in possession that person should be prosecuted as if they were in possession of any other illegal substance or "hard drug". This prosecution should be determined by the amount that is found and will be punished accordingly with a fine and possible jail time. If a minor is in possession of the steroids, that person should be tried in juvenile court and if convicted sent to juvenile prison and also pay a fine depending on the drug and amount found. At Holy Innocents' it is our duty to take the necessary actions in preventing the use of steroids in minors. Because of this, if a student athlete is found guilty of possession of usage of any steroid then he or she should be expelled, stripped of any records or titles given while in use, and handed over to police forces for further trial and prosecution.

Our policy at Holy Innocents’ for athletes should be one that follows the law and strict guidelines that we have laid out. It is important that this policy is followed to maintain the fairness of competition in athletics and integrity among participants. Although strict we believe that it can be followed and once followed will prove successful and effective.

__Comments:__ Reshaundra Owens- I agree with the policy and believe that it is strong and should produce excellent results.The Juvenile court suggestion will be very effective. I think the policy should extend to all students and not focus as much on athletes. I think that you should also get the parents involved with the policy. Having parents involved will help enforce the policy as well. Overall i like your groups ideas and believe that the policy you've created is great.

Although we haven't seen your commercial or add yet, i like your policy paper. It is well thought out and very organized. How you constantly restate why the school would be doing that is great. I also like how you take the amount of drug found into consideration when deciding the punishment. All in all it is very good.

This policy does a good job of explaining why an athlete would want to take one of the banned substances and also does a great job of why the athlete shouldn’t take them. It makes the side effects clear. The punishment seems fair and looks like it sticks mainly to the legal system that is in place now. This policy has the same consequences and many other award programs do. Stripping the records or titles of an athlete who was proven to be using these ban substances is a good form of justice. -JS

Without seeing your commercial or radio ad yet, I already like your policy. I like how it shows that the board understands and explains why an athlete would want to use illegal drugs. It then responses to the understand with an explanation of why these drugs are illegal. I think that allows room for athletes to relate to the new policy. The punishments seem severe enough to keep athletes from using the drugs, especially stripping records and titles from the athlete. I think that would scare athletes enough to not even touch illegal drugs. TC

Wick - I like your policy, but i think a thing that could be added is perhaps referral to counseling for the student rather than immediately sending them to Juvenile Court. Overall its a very effective policy and attacks the situation directly.

Will King I think y'alls plan would work, but I feel as if it is really intense and possibly to strict. I feel like it is better for the school to handle it first before handing them to the cops ouch