KNOTT HALTS DRUG TESTING OF TEACHERS AFTER LAWSUIT

Officials in Knott County have agreed to stop mandatory drug testing of
teachers after a teacher filed a federal lawsuit challenging the practice.

Knott School Superintendent Harold Combs said the local board of education
instituted mandatory and random drug testing in January for employees in
"safety-sensitive" positions, such as teachers.

Carol Crager, an elementary school teacher, filed a lawsuit March 25 in
U.S. District Court in Pikeville, claiming that the policy violated her
constitutional rights.

"We feel it is overly broad and overly invasive," said Crager's attorney,
J. Follace Fields II of Lexington.

Under a temporary restraining order, the district will stop testing
teachers until a hearing in Lexington on Tuesday.

Fewer than a half-dozen districts in the state share Knott's policy of
mandatory and random testing of teachers, and the issue has never been
fully tested in federal court in Kentucky, said Brad Hughes, spokesman for
the Kentucky School Boards Association.

Hughes said all bus drivers in the state are subject to drug testing, but
only five other districts require drug tests for other employees, including
teachers.