SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS DELAY VOTE ON RANDOM DRUG TESTING

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County school board members will seek
public comment before voting on a tougher drug policy that would apply
to nearly all school system employees and include random testing.

"We want to be careful to do this one like we do every other one,"
said board member Pete Thaw. "If we fall, let's fall on merits, not
technicalities."

The board had unanimously passed a weaker version of the drug-testing
policy earlier this year.

It calls for all school system job candidates to be subject to
pre-employment testing and all employees to be subject to tests for
cause, when substances turn up missing, when fitness is an issue and
when those on leave return to duty.

Only safety-sensitive employees would be subject to testing when they
were promoted or transferred.

Safety-sensitive employees are defined as anyone who operates
dangerous machinery, anyone who operates a county-owned vehicle,
anyone whose job duties include administering medication to students,
anyone who drives his or her own vehicle on school business or a
routine or regular basis, and any other person who volunteers to be
subject to the policy.

The revised policy would change the list of safety-sensitive positions
to include nearly all Kanawha County school personnel, including the
superintendent, teachers and counselors.

It also calls for random drug testing with a provision that says such
testing would be halted if a court ruled it illegal.

New school board member Robin Rector said she has studied numerous
drug policy cases currently before the courts and has concluded that
she does not feel comfortable voting for the random testing. She said
no other policies in the country that have been contested have
included random testing.

"I don't believe we want to be a test case on this," she said. "Why
charge our taxpayers with this expense? The money is not there for it,
and the court case is not there for it."

Rector did say she thought the current policy should define more
employees as safety sensitive.

Board member Jim Crawford, who previously has opposed random testing,
said Rector's stance differs from her campaign, when he says she
claimed she would fight for random employee drug testing. He called
the change in her position deceitful to taxpayers.

However, Rector said she campaigned only about the idea that random
drug testing was something society would support, but she can't
support it right now because of concerns about a potential lawsuit.
Depending on public comments, Crawford said he, too, may change his
stance on random drug testing.

"I think 23 or 25 taxpayers would support drug testing," he said. "I
may have to reconsider my position."

Crawford said he would like to hear from the public and invited the
taxpayers of Kanawha County to make comments to him about the drug
policy at his e-mail address at jimandmari...@suddenlink.net. The
official public comment period will start Aug. 21 and end 30 days
later. Those comments should be made at the school system's web site,
http://kcs.kana.k12.wv.us.

Board members plan to vote on the revised policy after public comments
are closed.