EASTON AREA DRUG-TESTING POLICY MOVING TOWARD VOTE

EASTON - Easton Area School District officials are using a western
Pennsylvania district as a model in crafting a drug-testing policy
and hope it will be as effective here as it has been there.

Since the Clairton City School District introduced its pre-employment
drug-testing policy one year ago, at least one prospective teacher
was not hired due to a positive test result.

Board member Richard Levingston said that would have been one teacher
too many.

"It was well worth the policy being issued," he said.

"I think it's just another way for us to protect our students," said
Easton Area School Board President Pat Vulcano Jr. "We want to make
sure that who we hire isn't some kind of substance abuser."

The policy committee will discuss drug testing at its Feb. 14 meeting
and present the policy for a vote before the full board Feb. 21.

Under the Clairton policy, an applicant must be tested by a
district-approved laboratory when applying for a job and will not be
considered for employment if the test comes back positive.

Pam Millen-Eustis, chairwoman of the Easton policy committee who
first proposed the Easton policy, also wants a requirement for
applicants to be tested within 24 hours of applying.

Millen-Eustis, a former office manager of a drug and alcohol
facility, said marijuana smokers can take a "urine cleaner drink" to
clear any traces of drugs in only a few days.

Sometimes, applicants with too much prior notice even sneak "clean
urine" into a test by taping a condom full of a friend's urine to
their thigh "to keep it at body temperature," she said.

"As disgusting as that is, it happens," she said. "You can always
beat the system. It's an unfortunate fact, but you can."

Vulcano said the policy should also include a provision protecting
applicants who take legal prescription drugs.

"Occasionally, I myself have to take a prescription painkiller for my
knee," Vulcano said. "But we would check to see if the person
actually has a prescription from a doctor to use that particular
drug. We would be very cautious."

The pre-employment policy would only affect prospective staff and
teachers. The board briefly discussed a random drug-testing policy
for current teachers, but dropped it when members said it would have
to be negotiated into the teachers' contracts, which were approved
last month.

Although local district solicitors warned that a random policy might
violate constitutional rights, Millen-Eustis said she hoped the
pre-employment policy might lead to random testing years down the
road.

"If a group were to fight back, that would really raise a question
for me whether they should work in a school district teaching our
children," she said. "If you have a problem with that, that's a red
flag."