Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, wants to ban public and private K-12 schools, colleges and universities in Missouri from belonging to athletic organizations if they allow students to use “performance enhancing drugs.” Coleman said she is taking this approach after the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), a membership-based group, did not respond to previous rule change requests.
She said there was a student transitioning from female to male, participating in high school wrestling, who had high testosterone levels.
“This is an attempt to say, if you are taking performance-enhancing drugs, you are going to have to not be able to compete against students who are not competing with performance-enhancing drugs,” Coleman told Missourinet.
Coleman called it a safety issue.
“We can’t do that just through a rule change with MSHSAA because MSHSAA is a member-based organization and has not been responsive to requests to address this via rules,” she said.
Under the bill, schools violating the bill would not receive state aid or other revenues. There could also be legal consequences as parents or students could file lawsuits if they’re deprived of athletic opportunities.
“Right now, there isn’t actually a prohibition even in place if somebody were to receive extra doses of testosterone either a male or a female student,” explained Coleman. “But the implications of that can put other students then at risk, particularly in some sports like wrestling.”
Andrew Kauffman, MSHSAA’s Director of Communications, said that they do not have a policy on performance enhancing drugs. They leave that up to the schools.
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