Don Hooton posses with a photo of his late son Taylor Hooton in the background at his home Tuesday, March 17, 2015, in McKinney, Texas. Texas is ready to dump high school steroids testing program. Hooton, who started the Taylor Hooton Foundation for steroid abuse education after his 17-year-old son's 2003 suicide was linked to steroid use, was one of the key advocates in creating the Texas program. Hooton believes the low number of positive tests doesnât mean Texas athletes are clean, only that theyâre not getting caught because of inadequate testing and loopholes that allow them to cheat the test. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Texas appears likely to shelve its high school steroids testing program that state officials once touted as a model for the rest of the country.
Even those who pushed for the program in 2007 call it a colossal misfire. The state spent $10 million testing more than 63,000 public school students and caught just a handful of cheaters.
Some critics say the program was poorly designed to catch the drug users they insist are slipping through the cracks.
New Jersey and Florida were the first states to have such programs, but Texas employed its typical bigger-is-better swagger by pumping in millions to sweep the state for users.
If the program loses its funding this summer, New Jersey and Illinois will have the only statewide high school steroids testing programs in the U.S.
Don Hooton posses for a photo in a room with remembrances of his late son Taylor Hooton at his home Tuesday, March 17, 2015, in McKinney, Texas. Texas is ready to dump high school steroids testing program. Hooton, who started the Taylor Hooton Foundation for steroid abuse education after his 17-year-old son's 2003 suicide was linked to steroid use, was one of the key advocates in creating the Texas program. Hooton believes the low number of positive tests doesnât mean Texas athletes are clean, only that theyâre not getting caught because of inadequate testing and loopholes that allow them to cheat the test. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
The Associated Press