'NO' TO DRUG TESTING

The Huntsville School System Was Wise To Table David Blair's Proposal

It's human nature to want to solve perceived problems quickly. But
sometimes perceptions are wrong. And haste can make waste. Then
there's the matter of what's legal and what's fiscally prudent.

All of which is to say that the Huntsville Board of Education acted
properly at last Thursday's meeting in rejecting a proposal by board
President David Blair to set up a system to drug-test new teachers,
and, possibly, all school employees.

Blair's sudden energy on the issue was prompted by a tragic situation:
Dr. Harry Smith, then principal of Lee High School, was arrested last
month on crack cocaine charges. The damage to the school, the students
and, of course, Smith, who awaits his day in court and is presumed
innocent for now, has been terrific.

But Blair's response - to institute some kind of drug testing for some
or all school employees - drew a more measured reaction from his
fellow board members.

For one thing, as board member Jennie Robinson pointed out, there's no
evidence that Smith's case, should he be found guilty, is anything
more than an anomaly.

For another, there's already a policy in place whereby Superintendent
Ann Roy Moore can order an employee to take a drug test if there is
sufficient evidence that that employee has a problem. Moore said
Thursday she's requested two tests in her three years on the job.
That's hardly evidence of a trend.

Then there's the cost - about $15 per test - that the school system
isn't prepared to bear. Coincidentally, the board later postponed
plans to expand a prototype program that would increase the number of
elementary schools that have bus service. The reason: Full bus service
for all neighborhood elementary schools would cost $2.7 million a
year, which would eat considerably into the system's reserves.

It's not an either/or situation, but few would make the argument that
the Huntsville school system would be better for employee drug testing
than for having an expanded bus system.

Against the law

Which brings us to the key reason the school board is skittish about
Blair's ideas: They are probably illegal.

The U.S. Constitution forbids testing current employees at random,
board attorney J.R. Brooks said. And rightly so. If there is no valid
reason to suspect that an employee has a criminal drug problem, it's
unreasonable for officials to be able to search them. That's one of
America's basic freedoms.

And because of all that, Brooks said, the school system could expect a
plethora of lawsuits if it were to try to impose a drug-testing policy
that requires such "searches" of people against whom there is no
evidence of wrong-doing.

The school board is going to have an "expert" on drug testing discuss
the issue at its next work session on April 1. Perhaps there's
something to be learned from that.

But the reasons to let this issue die - cost, legality and, no doubt,
employee morale - seem overwhelming at this point.