MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Inter-secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) and the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO) have joined forces as the two entities seek to find the best possible way to introduce drug testing in high school sports.

Drug testing at the annual ISSA Boys’ and Girls’ Championships has been a hotly debated topic and according to ISSA Vice-President Keith Wellington, the process has started and hopefully by January they should have the frame work of what should be a working agreement.

Wellington told the Jamaica Observer last Wednesday that they had met with representatives from JADCO at the recent meeting of principals held in Kingston and the results was “a joint team between JADCO and ISSA will work on documentation that will be presented to the general body of ISSA in January for them to peruse and to make suggestions”.

An estimated 130 principals from the approximately 169 member schools were present at the meeting, according to Wellington, who added that they agreed that the first phase, educating the stakeholders must be the priority.

“It was agreed that the education process would have to continue,” Wellington told the Observer. “We need to put a document in place to determine the rationale for drug testing, the process that students would go through and what would be the outcome if for example a student should test positive, what will be the route, what happens after that.”

The St Elizabeth Technical High School principal said there was no time line as to what testing would commence with the amount of work that would have to be done, as there would be “documentation with the education process and documentation of all the different variances will take place… we are going right back into the new school year and we will meet again to discuss all the protocols.”

One of the hotly debated issues with drug testing students had been what age groups would be tested, as well as seeking to protect the younger children from what can be for some a traumatic process.

Wellington said that part of the discussion between the parties were “the legality of testing underage children and getting permission from parents and schools”.

He said going forward there must be discussions as to “how that protocol will be worked out”, pointing out that while younger athletes are tested at regional and international competitions “it was accepted that when you are representing your country you would have signed off on JADCO/WADA codes”.

What needed to be worked out, Wellington argued, were how does one differentiate drug testing in a competition between schools in the island and international competition between nations.

Given that Champs is also a national competition he said it created a grey area that must be cleared up. “The issue of serious concern is that Champs and other ISSA competitions are school activities, but it is acknowledged that in Jamaica we have a peculiar situation where our high school events are regarded as national events and that is where the grey area is,” he said.

“While you have to answer the question where a child goes to a school versus school activity, how do you bar that child from participating for their school but again the contention is that the inter school activities in Jamaica are national activities, so all of that will have to be documented and all the different protocols related to them.”