FAYETTE SUPPORTS DRUG TESTS

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fayette County school board members voted
unanimously Monday to support the Kanawha County Board of Education in
its bid to randomly drug test teachers and other employees.

Fayette board members want to be known as friends of the Kanawha
school board in its upcoming federal court case, according to a letter
signed by Fayette school board President David Arritt. He addressed
the letter to Kanawha school board President Becky Jordon.

Kanawha school board member Pete Thaw discussed the letter at a
meeting Thursday night.

A hearing is scheduled Dec. 29 in U.S. District Court in Charleston.
Judge Joseph R. Goodwin will preside over the case.

On Dec. 10, the Metro 911 governing board also voted unanimously to
ask to intervene in lawsuits against the Kanawha school board. The
Metro 911 center employs about 90 people, all of whom are subject to
random drug tests, Director Carolyn Karr Charnock has said.

Likewise, Kanawha Commission President Kent Carper backs the school
board.

On Nov. 26, the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia filed
the lawsuit in Kanawha Circuit Court against the school board. Lawyers
for the school board then asked to move the lawsuit to federal court
because the AFT argued that the drug testing policy violates the
Fourth Amendment and other federal laws.

On Dec. 5, officials from the American Civil Liberties Union and the
West Virginia Education Association filed a second lawsuit in Kanawha
Circuit Court. The case has been assigned to Kanawha Circuit Judge
Louis Bloom.

Both the AFT and WVEA seek an injunction before the drug testing
policy goes into effect Jan. 1. Lawyers for both teachers unions have
asked to intervene in the other's case.

Under the policy, the school system next year would randomly test the
urine of 832 employees, or one in four of those 3,326 workers it
considers safety sensitive.

Each side seeks a definition of who is a safety-sensitive employee, as
a 1990 state Supreme Court ruling found that random drug tests in
private industry applied only to those workers.

School board members, who approved random drug tests by a 4-1 vote on
Oct. 15, define at least 45 types of employees as safety sensitive.
The list includes teachers, coaches, counselors, custodians, aides,
principals, Superintendent Ron Duerring and other top county
administrators, and plumbers, electricians and most maintenance workers.