BOARD VOTES TO RANDOMLY TEST TEACHERS FOR DRUGS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Over objections that it could damage teacher
moral and drag the county into a costly legal battle, the Kanawha
County school board has voted to randomly test teachers for drugs.

In the 4-1 vote, the board looked to the corporate world and decided
its pre-employment drug screenings and its suspicion-based testing for
all employees was not enough.

Board member Bill Raglin said he didn't understand why the education
community "thinks they're so different" from companies that currently
test employees at random like his former employer, the Bayer plant in
Institute.

The new policy adds teachers to a list of "safety-sensitive"
positions, like bus drivers, that already faced random testing.

Robin Rector, the board's lone nay vote, argued that the testing
policy did not treat teachers as professionals, would damage their
morale and could invite lawsuits by teacher organizations and civil
rights groups.

"We're really going to pay the price if we go forward with this," she
said.

Rector also agreed with teacher representatives who argued that a
policy to test all school employees, including teachers, based on
"reasonable suspicion" could work if it was used by
administrators.

"You have a policy in place now that you need to give a chance to
work," said Fred Albert, president of the American Federation of
Teachers affiliate in Kanawha County.

Albert also said that the expense of the program alone was too much.
He asked the board, which spent other parts of the meeting discussing
how strapped the system is for cash, how they would pay for the program.

Raglin said that if the board would budget accordingly the drug
testing policy did not have to come at the expense of other programs.

The board could decide as soon as next month how it will proceed with
the testing. The county still needs to find a contractor to administer
the tests and decide what percentage of the teacher population it
wants to test.

The random drug testing policy includes provisions to randomly test
all members of the school board, an amendment suggested by board
member.

Pete Thaw