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New line of ‘Defend Struthers’ T-shirts help to support drug testing
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Michael Cox, a 1993 graduate of Struthers High School and a Youngstown police officer, and Yvonne Wilson, director of diversion and safety at Struthers schools, display the new “Defend Struthers” T-shirts.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
STRUTHERS
Five years ago, when Michael Cox introduced the first incarnation of “Defend Struthers” T-shirts, his goal was to bolster the image of the school district’s football program — and the city at large.
At the time, Cox recalled, “the program had been down,” and the prevailing mentality was that “unless you were in the wealthy suburbs, you couldn’t compete.”
Cox, a 1993 graduate of Struthers High School and a current Struthers resident, didn’t think that was right or valid.
“I wanted to establish the mentality that we’re just as good as anybody else,” Cox said.
Borrowing a phrase from local activist Phil Kidd (Cox had Kidd’s blessing), Cox created a line of “Defend Struthers” T-shirts. He sold 400 of them.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and Cox, a police officer in Youngstown, was hit with a similar urge.
Last year, Cox, along with other members of the Struthers City Schools’ drug-testing committee, helped to implement mandatory drug testing for all student athletes in grades seven through 12.
The push to do so was spurred by his and fellow classmates’ realization that an alarming number of “people we had grown up with and went to school with developed drug problems and died from drug problems,” Cox said. He added that he and those classmates had invested in Struthers and wanted to stay in Struthers. They also wanted the best for their community.
Now, all students involved with any athletic extracurricular programs, including cheerleading, are drug-tested through the Toledo-based Great Lakes Biomedical within the first two weeks of their respective seasons. After this initial test, student athletes are placed in a pool for random testing, which is conducted throughout the season.
But Cox wants to do more.
His latest venture is a new line of “Defend Struthers” T-shirts, the proceeds from which will go toward expanding the school district’s drug-testing program.
They’ll also help to promote a drug-free lifestyle for Struthers students, partly through the restarting of PANDA, a club at Struthers Middle School that helps empower students to make responsible decisions about drugs, alcohol, bullying and other issues most affecting them.
“Now, we’re defending Struthers from the plagues of drugs and alcohol,” Cox said.
On the front of the T-shirts, a Struthers Wildcat logo is surrounded by letters that proclaim “Defend Struthers from illegal drugs, underage drinking and tobacco!” The back says, “Count on me to be drug free!”
Cox added that he came up with the idea for the T-shirts in July, then actually began selling them late last month at the first home football game against Campbell Memorial High School.
The shirts, available in both black and red and in a wide range of sizes, will be sold at home games throughout the remainder of the football season and also at the Struthers Board of Education Office, 99 Euclid Ave. Children’s sizes through XL are $10, while XXL is $12 and XXXL is $13.
About 40 have been sold so far. If they continue to sell well, Cox said, he’ll think about switching them up for basketball season — maybe having the design printed on a long-sleeved shirt — and continuing then, too.
Yvonne Wilson, director of diversion and safety at Struthers, explained that the mandatory drug testing requires from each student a $20 fee — the actual cost of the test. If a student plays a second sport, he pays an extra $10, though playing additional sports beyond two does not warrant another fee.
That $20 fee, though, ensures that a student will be tested at least once per season.
“The more money raised, the more random testing” there will be, Cox noted, adding that he’s hoping to one day be able to fund the random testing of every student involved in every sport — something that would cost about $8,000.
Wilson said that though the drug testing is limited to athletics, she’d like it to eventually include students who participate in extracurriculars and who want to drive to school. She’d also like to grow the pool of students who are randomly tested; if a parent wants his child to be involved, he or she can “opt in” to the program, she said.
Both Wilson and Cox said the drug-testing program, despite being only in its first year, has been positively received at Struthers.
“My nephew is a junior,” Cox said. “He mentioned that knowing they are going to be tested, they stay away from things because they want to play sports.”