COURT BACKS BUS DRIVER IN DRUG TEST BATTLE

It was a Friday when the message was left on Lynnann Wigginton's
home answering machine.

Wigginton, who has spent half her life driving a school bus, had
tested positive for marijuana during a random drug test, the caller
said, which meant she would soon lose her bus driver's permit.

By Monday morning, the stunned Ingleside woman, who swears she's not
a drug user, went to the Lake Forest Medical Center to be retested.

And though that retest came back negative, the Illinois secretary of
state had already moved to suspend her license, preventing Wigginton
from driving a bus for the Round Lake School District.

But the Appellate Court of Illinois recently ruled that because of
questions surrounding the reliability of the initial test -- and
Wigginton's quick move for a retest, which was negative -- she
should not have had her license revoked.

"I was devastated over the whole matter," she said. "When five or
six people are handling your urine test at a lab, you have no idea
what happens after it leaves your sight."

The Illinois appeals court decision affirmed a lower-court ruling,
but Dave Druker, secretary of state spokesman, said they will now
consider whether to appeal it.

Wigginton, 50, was represented by the Illinois Education
Association, whose attorney, Paul Klenck, said "she took every step
possible to prove she wasn't a user," as "she was suspicious of the
procedure" because she had wrongly tested positive for drugs years before.

The license revocation meant Wigginton wasn't able to drive a bus
for 11 months, taking a pay cut to work as a crossing guard. Though
she began driving again this school year, she said she now hopes to
pursue damages for the wages she lost in those 11 months.