CARROLL CO. SCHOOLS TOUGHEN DRUG POLICY FOR FACULTY AND STAFF

Guidelines Include Testing, Treatment Requirements

Concerned that school principals didn't have enough authority to help staff
members with drug and alcohol addictions or to keep them out of their
classrooms until they complete treatment, Carroll County school officials
have written new regulations that they say will give the district one of
the toughest employee drug-testing programs in the state.

The guidelines, scheduled to take effect July 1, will require teachers and
other staff to submit to a drug or alcohol test if their supervisors have a
"reasonable suspicion" of substance abuse.

Although a positive test result would not immediately lead to termination,
the staff member would be prohibited from returning to work before
successfully completing a treatment program and without agreeing to up to
six unannounced drug tests over 12 months.

"This is not a witch hunt. And it's not to say that we think we have a
problem or we think there's an unknown problem out there," said Stephen
Guthrie, the system's assistant superintendent of administration. "It's
just another layer of protection for our staff and our students."

Union leaders, representing nearly 3,200 school employees, helped draft the
new guidelines, which they say strike a careful balance between getting
staffers help without getting them in trouble.

Under the current regulations, Guthrie said, there is very little that
principals and other supervisors can do if they suspect a staff member is
abusing drugs or alcohol. The school system has no policy or regulation to
force employees to submit to drug testing, and without the concrete proof
that such tests provide, suspicions cannot be acted upon.

In most of the four or five cases that arise each year, Guthrie said, such
suspicions go no further than a principal approaching the employee and
letting him know that someone had raised a concern about his behavior. But
a principal sometimes talked to the same staff member several times in a
single year, Guthrie said.

"I can ask a principal if it's keeping the employee from doing their job -
are they unable to teach their class, operate the machinery, sweep the
floor, make the breakfast food or do the typing?" he explained. "But unless
they're so overtly impaired that they can't perform their job, there's not
much you can do.

"Substance abuse doesn't generally work like that," he added. "It works
subtly. And that ties our hands."

School officials began drafting new regulations after hearing two years ago
that the Talbot County school system was starting a drug-testing program
that includes pre-employment, random and reasonable-suspicion screenings.

Although the reasonable-suspicion threshold is not uncommon in private
companies and local governments, Carroll school officials found that Talbot
is the only school system in Maryland using the standard to require
employee drug testing.

Carroll Superintendent Charles I. Ecker appointed a committee, including
central office administrators, drug treatment counselors, the director of
the school system's Employee Assistance Program and the leaders of all five
labor unions, to examine the school system's rules. Because the resulting
changes were written into the superintendent's administrative regulations
rather than school board policy, they do not fall under the jurisdiction of
the elected school board.

But board members - and union leaders - have praised the modifications.

"It respects not only students' need for safety with the people in our
schools, but it also respects our employees' needs with a strong treatment
component," board member Laura K. Rhodes said. "I'm proud to be a part of
such a cutting-edge policy."

Board members will likely discuss the new regulations at their meeting
Wednesday, when they are scheduled to vote on a rewritten policy on
maintaining a drug-free workplace.

Under the superintendent's new regulations, supervisors must document a
pattern of behavior - such as frequent absences or illnesses, outbursts,
slurred speech and an unsteady gait - that backs up their "reasonable
suspicion" of staff drug or alcohol abuse.

"It's not a one-shot deal," said James Doolan, the school district's
transportation services director and committee chairman. "We're looking for
patterns of uncharacteristic, irate and unreasonable behavior over a period
of time."

The supervisor then will summon the employee for a conference and escort
him or her to a licensed testing center within two hours.

Employees with negative test results will be permitted to return to work
immediately. Those who test positive - or who refuse a test - will be
referred for mandatory treatment and could be suspended or fired.

But such disciplinary action is not automatic after a first offense.

"There may be extenuating circumstances you want to consider," Doolan said,
suggesting as an example a longtime employee who becomes addicted to
painkillers after surgery. "That doesn't mean they're a bad person. If we
can get them help to get them back to where they've always been, we'll have
a great employee."

Union leaders said such flexibility and protections are important.

"The philosophy is to assist employees having some trouble or difficulty
with substance abuse or alcohol abuse," said Barry Potts, president of the
2,030-member Carroll County Education Association, which represents
teachers, nurses, media specialists and counselors.

He said training planned for this summer about what constitutes suspicious
behavior will likely encourage not only principals, but also staff, to
approach colleagues they think need help.

"It does offer protection to the employees themselves," said Sharon
Fischer, president of the Carroll Association of School Employees, which
represents 520 secretaries and instructional assistants. "It has to be
reasonable suspicion. It can't just be, 'You're acting strange today, let's
go take a drug test.' If you're taking medication, you can go to your
doctor and prove that the medication can cause this kind of a reaction. So
there's that safeguard in there as well."

Although Carroll will be only the second Maryland school system to
implement the reasonable-suspicion threshold, it likely won't be the last.

"We've shared this with other boards of education," Guthrie said. "And
they're interested."