ACLU WILL SUE TO HALT TEACHER DRUG TESTING

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii wants to prevent the
state from testing public school teachers for drugs next school year,
charging that the program would be ineffective and costly and would
violate privacy rights.

ACLU officials say they will soon file a lawsuit against the state on
behalf of teachers who contend they were forced to agree to random
and reasonable-suspicion drug testing to get a pay hike under a new
two-year contract signed in the spring.

"The state is now in a dubious position of being the first state ever
to subject its public-educational force to a blanket policy of random
drug testing," said Vanessa Chong, ACLU of Hawaii executive director.
"It unfairly violates the rights of thousands of law-abiding public
school employees while doing little to protect anyone."

State Attorney General Mark Bennett defended the program set to begin
June 30, arguing it "violates neither state law nor federal law."

"We will vigorously defend it," he said. "We believe that the state
and the teachers union have an absolute right to sign this type of a contract."

The state made drug testing of teachers a non-negotiable demand
during talks with the Hawaii State Teachers Association, which
represents about 13,000 teachers. Though the program was met with
resistance by some, 61.3 percent of more than 8,000 union members
voted in May to ratify a contract giving them 4 percent raises in the
current and next school years.

Plans for the drug testing policy came in the wake of six
drug-related arrests of Department of Education employees in a
six-month period, beginning in March 2006 when a Leilehua High School
teacher was arrested for dealing crystal methamphetamine.

The incidents prompted legislators to introduced a bill that, had it
passed, would have expanded drug testing to all public school
employees who work close to children if there was reasonable
suspicion they were intoxicated.

The Education Department, which is also considering a drug-sniffing
dog program, conducts drug tests only of bus drivers, some physical
therapists and auto mechanics instructors.

The ACLU decided to challenge the drug testing of teachers to support
several employees upset about it, Chong said. The ACLU compiled a
team of legal experts who will, starting Sept. 27, hold meetings on
Maui, Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island.

Several teachers complained about the state's firm position to object
to any contract unless it carried a drug testing provision, said HSTA
Executive Director Joan Husted.

"There are teachers who believe they were blackmailed," she said,
"but we also heard from teachers who believe they have an obligation
to ensure their schools are drug-free."

Husted said the union has developed guidelines to test teachers based
on reasonable suspicion and is working on the random portion.

The union and education officials will meet formally for the first
time next month to work out details of the program, said Greg
Knudsen, Department of Education spokesman.

Randall Myers, who teaches sixth-graders at Sunset Beach Elementary,
said the state rushed to judgment when it decided a drug testing
program was needed to curb substance use on campuses.

"I think they made a huge leap to assuming that it is a generalized
problem in the schools," Myers said.