FORMER CHEROKEE COUNTY TEACHER SUES OVER DRUG TEST POLICY
FOR SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

A former Cherokee County Spanish teacher has brought suit against the
Graham County school system to prevent it from implementing random
drug testing of all school employees.

The North Carolina Association of Educators filed the lawsuit on
behalf of Susan Jones, who now teaches at Robbinsville High School.
Jones previously taught Spanish at Hiwassee Dam High School in
Cherokee County.

The suit states that the drug testing policy violates state
constitutional principles against discrimination and searches without
evidence.

Graham County Superintendent of Schools Rick Davis said the purpose
of the policy, which will take effect July 1, is to ensure a drug
free and and safe work environment. He said he believes that Graham
County would be the first school system in North Carolina to
randomly drug test all school employees.

While private companies can drug test its employees, governments can
only test employees suspected of drug use or those with safety
sensitive jobs. School bus drivers' jobs are considered safety
sensitive and bus drivers are drug tested across the United States.

In its new policy, the Graham County School Board classified all
positions in the school system as "safety sensitive positions". The
policy states that the classification was made "due to the fact that
these positions require work where an inattention to duty or error
in judgement will have the potential for significant risk or harm to
those entrusted to their care, and the possibility or probability of
contact with students and the influence employees have could cause
irreparable damage to the health and well being of the students."

Cherokee County School official Terelle Beaver said Cherokee County
doesn't have plans to implement a policy of drug testing all employees.

"This was visited several years ago when we thought we wanted to test
coaches," she said. "We saw that if we implemented it, it would not
be random testing but would be for new hires."

However, the policy has never been adopted. The only school employees
who are drug tested are bus drivers.

Davis said the Graham County Board of Education adopted the policy on
December 5.

The first random testing will involve 25 percent of school employees
soon after school begins in August, Davis said. The plan is to test
25 percent of employees four times a year.

"Theoretically, that would reach 100 percent of the employees, but
some employees may be randomly chosen for the test every time," Davis
said.

Davis said Graham County has pre-employment testing, whereby a job
applicant recommended by the board must submit a negative test.
Student athletes have been randomly tested for several years.

When asked about the chances of a successful suit against the school
board, Davis said, "That is entirely up to the court system. We will
wait and see."

Davis said that the Knott County, KY and the Knox County, TN school
systems have policies for randomly testing all school employees. The
policies in those counties were upheld in Circuit Court, Davis said.

Keystone Laboratories, from Asheville, will implement the random
selection of employees and procedures for collection.

Any Graham County employee who is found to have a detectable amount
of an illegal drug or of alcohol will get a letter of reprimand and
will be offered a one-time opportunity to enter and successfully
complete a rehabilitation program. The employee will be placed on
approved leave without pay for up to six months for rehabilitation.
Then, the school superintendent will decide whether to reinstate the
employee. The superintendent will recommend to the school board
whether to reinstate the employee.

Rep. Roger West has stated that the state should consider random drug
testing for all its schools.