BOARD TABLES TEACHER DRUG TEST

Some Worry About Possible Side Effects For School System

The Huntsville school board tabled plans Thursday to test new
teachers, and possibly all new school employees, for illegal drugs.

At Thursday's meeting, some board members worried that testing new
teachers might be costly, result in false-positive tests and open the
school system to lawsuits. The board decided instead to invite an
expert on drug testing to speak at the next work session scheduled for
April 1.

"The community is interested in having some sort of drug-testing
policy," said board President David Blair as he launched a lengthy,
yet inconclusive discussion.

The idea of testing employees surfaced after the Feb. 12 arrest of Dr.
Harry Smith, then principal of Lee High School. Smith resigned two
hours after the sheriff's Vice and Narcotics Unit charged him with
possession of crack cocaine.

After the arrest, some parents at Lee asked school officials why
employees aren't screened for drugs.

"My concern here," said board member Jennie Robinson, "is are we
reacting to one incident?" She asked if there is a pronounced drug
problem among city teachers. Superintendent Ann Roy Moore said no.

While Huntsville does not screen new employees, it does have a policy
to test any current employee suspected of drug use or drinking on the
job. The test must be ordered by the superintendent. Security guards
will fetch the employee and escort him or her to the lab.

Moore said she has requested two such tests in three years.

Robinson worried a preliminary drug test might deter some applicants.
"I'm concerned about the message we might send in terms of being
controlling," she said.

Blair countered that the message would be that safety of the children
comes first. Robinson answered that students are more likely to be
dangerous than teachers.

Huntsville does not randomly test any students for illegal drugs. Wade
Lipscomb, who oversees athletics for Huntsville schools, said during
an interview in November that it would cost about $15 per test. He
said only parents of baseball players at Hunts-ville High agreed to
have the team tested last year.

At Thursday's meeting, board member Topper Birney asked who would pay
for screening employees. Belinda Williams, director of human
resources, said applicants already pay $54 for their own background
checks.

The board also learned it could not legally test current employees at
random.

Board attorney J.R. Brooks said if the board began testing current
employees without a reason to suspect drug use, the policy likely
would violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against
unreasonable searches.

While many school systems test students at random, the students must
be athletes. Some school systems, such as Hartselle's, have expanded
this to include all those who participate in extracurricular
activities. The Shelby County system randomly tests all students who
park on campus.

Philosophically, this is the same as testing government employees who
operate heavy equipment and drive buses, Brooks said, with public
safety being the reason for the drug tests. Although the U.S. Supreme
Court has not ruled one way or the other, Brooks said teachers could
be argued to have a job that requires their full faculties to ensure
the safety of children.

But the same standard may not apply to other school employees, such as
janitors and lunch ladies, he cautioned.

For that reason, Brooks advised the board to consider testing new
teachers and administrators who would be hired to supervise children.