HISD PLANS DRUG SEARCHES AT EMPLOYEE PARKING LOTS

Move Comes After More Teachers Arrested On Drug Charges

The Houston school district plans to dispatch drug-detecting dogs to
every campus in coming weeks in search of illegal narcotics in
employee parking lots.

The move, which Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced Monday,
follows a recent string of teacher drug arrests, many prompted by
anonymous tips, in the state's largest school district.

Since October, Houston Independent School District police have
arrested a dozen employees - mostly teachers - accused of having
marijuana in their cars at school and three employees accused of
possessing prescription drugs without documentation, according to
updated data from the district. Two employees were arrested twice, and
an assistant principal has been charged with growing marijuana at home.

Saavedra said the district is moving to fire the employees in cases
where there is sufficient evidence. "This is a matter of great concern
to us and we wanted to make sure that our community understood that we
will take whatever action is necessary to make sure our schools are
safe," Saavedra said at a news conference, where he was joined by
representatives from employee organizations.

Saavedra said he does not think the drug problem is severe enough to
implement random drug testing of the district's 12,000 teachers, but
said district officials would consider additional action after the
widespread searches of employee parking lots.

Civil liberties issues

Only bus drivers, police officers and other security personnel are
subject to random drug tests under HISD policy. Chuck Robinson,
executive director of the Congress of Houston Teachers, said he was a
bit concerned about the drug-dog searches violating civil liberties.
But, he said, "we have to maintain the public confidence and trust in
our employees."

Houston-area school districts vary in how they dispatch drug
dogs.

Some, including Aldine, Cypress-Fairbanks and Fort Bend, focus mostly
on catching students, rather than employees.

"We have limited funding and the funding is targeted on the student
lockers and the student parking lots," said Cy-Fair spokeswoman Kelli
Durham. "If we got a tip, we can handle that in many ways when it's an
adult."

No employees in Cy-Fair ISD, the third-largest school district in
Texas, have been arrested on drug charges this school year, Durham
said.

Officials with the Alief, Aldine, Clear Creek, Fort Bend and Pasadena
school districts also reported no teacher arrests when contacted by
the Houston Chronicle. Leticia Fehling, an Aldine spokeswoman, said
the district sends drug dogs to sniff lockers and other areas at
middle and high school campuses. The dogs are sent to elementary
campuses when invited, she said, but the district does not do random
searches of employee parking lots.

"We view it as a constitutional privacy issue - just simply going out
there not having a tip on a particular teacher or teachers," Fehling
said.

Are all districts reporting?

Kevin Quinn, a regional director for the National Association of
School Resource Officers, said he did not see a legal problem with
randomly searching employee lots.

"Basically, all they're doing is sniffing the public air around the
car, so there is no warrant needed," he said. Quinn, whose region
includes Texas, said Houston ISD's drug problem might appear worse
than in other districts because HISD is voluntarily releasing
information to the media and is targeting employee parking lots.

"The fact of the matter is that they're reporting it to the media," he
said of HISD. "I'm sure it happens in other places. You just don't
hear about it."

HISD also has more employees - about 28,000 - than other area
districts. The latest arrests occurred at Yates High School on Monday
morning, shortly before Saavedra announced his plan to conduct drug
searches at all 300 or so campuses. Two teachers at Yates were accused
of having marijuana in their cars, while the other arrest involved
prescription drugs.

Tarnishing reputations

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, which
represents some of the arrested teachers, said a couple of them
suspect the marijuana belonged to their own children or other family
members. She advised teachers to have their cars detailed if their
teenagers drove them and to keep a copy of prescriptions on hand. By
law, having such substances near school grounds is a heightened violation.

"This is tarnishing the reputation of teachers across the state of
Texas and definitely HISD," Fallon said.

The marijuana arrests have involved employees from Lee High, Whittier
Elementary, Wheatley High, Williams Middle, Woodson Middle, Worthing
High and Yates High and the food service department, according to a
report provided by the district Monday. Woodson, Yates and the food
service department also had arrests involving prescription drugs. Not
all the employees have been charged.