Steroid scandals:the view from the kids' locker room

At East Garner, the doping scandal and last month's NBA brawl have been hot topics for weeks. Mr. Holton says he's encouraged by the fact that boys stop him in the hall to ask him his thoughts - though he admits that a principal's influence can pale in comparison to a Bonds home run. In kids' comments about the NBA brawl, he says he sees a generational value shift. "They wonder not how the players could have jumped in, but why someone would throw a beer. It's real scary what they accept."

Still, many students are appalled. Rushing to speak over each other, Apex Middle School students Joe Anderson, Andrew Veal, and Travis Sears - huddled in gray anoraks, skateboards stuffed in their backpacks - acknowledge Barry Bonds is a big hero. "Drugs are just plain bad, but a lot of kids do look up to these guys," says Andrew, a towheaded skater with a confident smile.

They've learned all about the dangers of drugs at school - not just of recreational drugs, but of steroids specifically. Still, says Travis, it's not lost on their classmates that lots of grownups seem to be defending the athletes: "It's just weird that people don't seem to fault these guys."

Despite crackdowns and improvements in testing for Major League Baseball, Becker, the hockey dad, says it's a growing challenge to convince kids that great athletes aren't produced by chemicals, but are shaped by nature, desire, and will power. Holton agrees: "Many of them don't understand that Barry Bonds has natural talents; now they just think anyone who's big is on steroids."

But there are other pressures, including competition for scholarships, that have made even some parents wink and nod at extreme measures to help boost their children's chances of securing college scholarships, or simply scoring more points in the big game.

"Kids are wondering what it's going to take to make varsity, how to get an edge, so it's not surprising that this is filtering down the way it has," says Dr. Bruce Svare, director of the National Institute for Sports Reform in Selkirk, NY.

Moreover, pediatricians see a drive for steroids even beyond the track field and the gym: Since steroids make it easier to fine-tune a six-pack tummy and bulk up the shoulders, some kids are turning to them as a tool for physical perfection - a common obsession among teenagers starting to make important decisions about their bodies.

"It's less and less in athletes and more and more in kids who want to look good. It's the Adonis complex," says Bernard Griesemer, a pediatrician in Springfield, Mo.

Despite the physical dangers - chronic users have been known to battle hair loss, acne, and heart problems, and even suffer psychotic episodes - making steroid use more acceptable for sports stars, experts say, is likely to spark more substance abuse in the early years. And mixed messages about the acceptability of cheating for glory are likely to have a broad impact on how the middle-school masses make decisions about how to get ahead.

Children see "how our society has looked the other way, how owners of baseball looked the other way, how fans looked the other way," says Dr. Svare. "We need an attitude change in our culture, because kids can really piece this together much better than we think they can."

• Staff writer Mark Sappenfield contributed to this report.

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