The Georgia High School Association (GHSA) says student-athletes receiving saline intravenous fluids is not their problem.
According to the GHSA’s Tuesday meeting minutes, Executive Director Robin Hines asked organization’s board if they felt an official policy should be developed regarding the practice of giving saline IV’s to football players. This comes after several First Coast News On Your Side stories revealed several Thomasville High Bulldog football players getting the IVs before football games in unsanitary conditions.
The report says, the GHSA board “felt overwhelmingly that the GHSA should not make policy when it comes to medical issues, but rather leave that up to the local school boards, and/or doctor and patient.”
Hines, a graduate of Thomasville High School, declined to be interviewed for this story. According to reports, Hines also taught and coached at his alma mater.
“There is no need for an interview, the minutes of the meeting clearly indicate the Board of Trustee's position. Medical issues are between the physician and the patient and the GHSA is not making a policy regulating medical procedures. This is between the Physician, student and parents. It is up to local boards of education to choose to regulate legal medical practice,” Hines wrote via email to First Coast News.
Hines didn’t reply when asked if any current policies inside the GHSA constitution such as 4.63 Steroids/Performance Enhancing Drugs showed a stance on medical issues.
That rule reads as:
The Georgia High School Association strongly opposes the use of anabolic steroids
and other performance enhancing substances by high school student-athletes. The
GHSA believes that such usage violates legal, ethical and competitive-equity
standards and imposes unreasonable long-term health risks on the user. The GHSA
encourages member schools to educate students and coaches about the perils of
steroid usage, and the GHSA will distribute educational materials about this issue to
member schools.