DRUGS DOG HOUSTON TEACHERS; ALL QUIET IN SOUTHEAST TEXAS

It's either good living or good hiding that is keeping Southeast
Texas teachers and students out of the drug spotlight.

A series of teacher drug arrests in the Houston Independent School
District prompted its superintendent, Abelardo Saavedra, to call for
drug dogs to visit all campus employee parking lots in the coming
weeks, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.

But, Southeast Texas school officials say they have had few
drug-related incidents involving employees, rendering drug testing
and drug searches unwarranted.

"We've never seen an indication that there is a problem with our
employees," said Gail Krohn, superintendent for Nederland ISD. "I
suspect if we did see a problem that our board would take that into
consideration and make that step forward."

All seven Jefferson County school districts have school board
policies that allow for "reasonable" searches related to drug and
alcohol use on the part of both students and employees. But few
districts make use of the policy on a regular basis or have a
drug-testing policy in place.

In Hamshire-Fannett ISD, Superintendent Keith Elliott said the
school district has had few drug-related incidents. He said that
drug dogs were brought to the campuses in the past, but that hasn't
happened in a few years.

"I'm not naive to say, hey, there's not drugs on any campus," said
Elliott, who has been with the district for 16 years. "Normally, if
(drugs) do come on campus, we do get information and we follow it up."

In the Nederland Independent School District, it was the presence of
drug-related incidents that caused the board to implement a random
drug-testing policy about four years ago.

Krohn said the policy curtailed drug-related incidents and improved
student behavior.

During the 2003-04 school year, fifth-through 12th-grade students
committed 36 drug and alcohol-related offenses, she said.

That number grew to 42 in 2004-05, and 52 in 2006-07. Last year, the
district saw it drop significantly to 16 offenses.

"We feel like this is just one way we can help kids, give kids a
reason to say no to drugs," she said.

The district has not seen fit to spread the program to school
employees with the exception of bus drivers, who must receive drug
tests because of federal law.

The drug dogs that periodically search campuses are brought in
primarily to deal with possible student offenses at the middle
school and high school, she said.

"I don't know of any school district that does drug testing for
employees," she said.

Texas Education Code does not address drug testing or searches
specifically, said Texas Education Agency Communications Director
Debbie Ratcliffe.

She said it's not a common practice to drug test education employees
even though other professions do so. She said the new fingerprinting
law, which requires teachers, support staff and some volunteers to
get national criminal history background checks, will partly
address the issue.

"If somebody had a drug arrest or conviction, that would pop up when
their criminal history was done so (the) school would have that to
go by," she said.

Beaumont school district police Chief Clydell Duncan said that since
the department's inception in 2007, there have no reports of staff
members with illegal drugs on campus. He said there have been
between five and six cases of students with illegal drugs, whether a
prescription drug or marijuana.

"We really have not gotten any information that would cause us to
bring in dogs to check out (a) school," Duncan said by phone. "I
think if you had incidents based upon a number that Houston has had
- - they had 12 employees - I think that would justify having a more
aggressive program."

Beaumont school district spokeswoman Jolene Ortego said drug dogs
were used, on occasion, in the past, but have not been on campus in
several years.