Saratoga News

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Coach Butch Cattolico talked with his football team during a practice last week at the high school. The coach supports a group of parents who want to see drug testing for team members.

Los Gatos football coach can test players for drugs

Board gives its blessing but issues no directive

By Shari Kaplan and Clarence Cromwell

Butch Cattolico, Los Gatos High School's head football coach, didn't get a school board directive to test his players for drugs, but he got the board's permission to test if he wants to, and he said that's good enough.

"I feel strongly that we have a problem, and this is the best way to handle it. This is what I'm doing as head football coach--to teach them more than football," Cattolico said.

When the Sept. 3 meeting of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees was over, Cattolico walked away with the board's "blessing" but not its official vote for his proposal to begin random, voluntary drug testing on members of the LGHS varsity football team. No mention was made of Saratoga's High's team.

Board members and Superintendent Tod Likins did not believe this was a matter the board should vote upon; a vote would be reserved for a policy-making decision, and the board was not prepared at this time to get into the possible legal imbroglios surrounding such a decision.

Trustee Ron Adolphson reiterated his concern that the voluntary nature of the program may cause players to be stigmatized or thought to be automatically guilty if they refuse to participate. However, Adolphson said he supported a voluntary drug testing program run by Cattolico.

Trustee Bob Allen offered a "multi-tiered proposal": By not voting to establish a policy but in giving Cattolico the board's "blessing," Cattolico would be able to use the provisions in the district's athletic code to do drug testing as "a tool that can help students in a positive way," he said. Allen also suggested forming a committee of administrators, parents and students to look further into the drug use problem. His suggestion led to an ad hoc committee forming by the end of the evening.

Cattolico said he would have preferred a school board decision.

"It's a win/loss type of thing. We have the moral support of the board, but if things go wrong, I'm afraid we'll be on our own," Cattolico said after the meeting. He said he is disappointed and wishes the board could have established a policy and helped take responsibility. He said he will proceed with his plans, but feels he must use caution.

"My concern is this is a no-man's land. This is neither legal nor illegal," Likins said at the meeting. His recommendation to the board was not to vote on the drug-testing issue but, rather, leave it to Cattolico and the group of concerned parents who have backed the coach throughout.

A letter board members received from the district's legal counsel expressed some serious reservations, Likins said, including that "the proposed drug-testing policy does not meet the requirements under current federal or state law," and the district would need to provide evidence of a "compelling need" for such a program, as well as a thorough plan about collection and testing procedures. In addition, the program may be vulnerable in that its tests include those for substances other than illegal drugs, Likins said.

Cattolico explained that more than 13 California school districts already have some type of drug-testing program--some more strict than his, some more lenient. He also shared information from the state Board of Education and cited the June 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case of Veronia School District v. Acton. In that case, the court ruled that drug testing of athletes does not violate the constitutional clause pertaining to reasonable search and seizure. The court rendered an opinion that benefits of testing high school athletes for drugs outweigh any minor invasion of privacy and that students, who are under state supervision at school, may be subjected to greater control than free adults.

Student board member Julie Yick of Los Gatos High School said there are mixed feelings about drug testing among her fellow students, although she said many commented that if the football team is tested, other athletes should be as well. For that matter, she added, athletes are not the only leaders students look up to, so perhaps testing other extracurricular groups would be in order.

Cattolico acknowledged that it might be more fair to test everyone, but the money and time involved would be problematic. A parent in the audience pointed out that if the school has to start somewhere, it should be with the football team because its members are among the school's most visible students.