NO DRUG TESTING FOR TEACHERS

THE Kanawha County Board of Education resisted the temptation this
spring to expand random drug tests for school bus drivers to include
just about every other employee in the school system.

Such a plan would cost $200,000 to implement, not counting the expense
of disciplinary and grievance hearings should anyone test positive.

Following the arrest of a teacher on drug charges, the proposal has
returned. Here we go again.

Reporter Jessica M. Karmasek found that only Hawaii is considering
drug testing, as part of a deal with the teachers union that would
give teachers a hefty pay raise.

From time to time, drug testing for teachers comes up, said Lisa
Soronen, senior staff attorney for the National School Boards
Association.

"It's one of those things that is easy to look at, but hard to decide
how to do it," Soronen said. "Because then they think of the expense
and the constitutional issues involved."

The school board got this right the first time. The program in place
is as far as drug testing should go.