Athletes and Drugs

A natural link to this month's theme is the drug use/abuse by professional athletes.  Almost daily, the sports page reports one or more athletes linked to drug use.  In some cases, newspapers have a police blotter, which lists accused athletes, their purposted offense, and any response by their team or league. Some project ideas to take advantage of this  unfortunately natural link include the following. (A very thorough international resource for the topic may be found at www.drugsinsport.net/index.htm.)

Write a letter to the sports editor of the city's newspaper: Students should argue their viewpoint on a certain athlete who is making the news (e.g., Barry Bonds and BALKO), a team that has struggled with multiple infractions (e.g., Portland Trailblazers), its use across sports (e.g., Olympians, THG).  Offer extra credit to any student letter that gets published.  Be sure to cut out a published letter and display it on the department's bulletin board.

Write a report:  Students pick their favorite athlete (who has been accused or found guilty of drug possession or usage) or sport.  Research and report the details of the incident(s) affecting the athlete or a sport league's drug policy.  Students should react to the details they discover and write-up their evaluation of the athlete/situation from the standpoint of a juror or change agent (i.e., what would s/he change about a sport's drug policy).

Have a debate:  Sports and drugs are contentious topics.  Some feel athletes are treated differently than the rest of the public.  Some feel their offenses are magnified compared to everyone else or punishments are more lenient.  Still others feel that substance abuse is a reality and is a legitimate means of performance enhancement.  Because there is no black and white and teens are discovering moral relativity and argumentation, hold a series of debates during the month.  Each debate can pit three pro students against three con students with remaining students listening to argumentation and voting for a winner.  Going through this exercise provides a healthy forum for discussing a tough topic and empowers students (i.e., instead of being preached to by teachers).

Newspaper blotter:  Students read the sports section and record every drug-related story or newswire report.  Students should record an athlete's name, gender, ethnicity, sport, drug, other criminal offense, and if available the legal response.  Students should analyze their compiled data to determine percentage breakdowns for subcategories and report trends they see.  They should then reflect on whether there is skew/bias by any subcategory and whether the media, society, or both is responsible.