GOVERNOR'S MOTIVES POLITICAL, NOT ALTRUISTIC

Drug Testing

The week before the teacher's conference, Gov. Linda Lingle slammed
the negotiations team with an unprecedented demand - accept random
drug testing or the contract package that was on the table was going
to be taken away.

Random means you are subjecting a percentage of teachers with a test
that has shown to have 30 percent false positives. However, HSTA is
already behind drug testing, as long as it is done with reasonable
suspicions!

Under Lingle's draconian, scapegoat proposal a totally clean teacher
could register a false positive, and then have his or her image ruined
in the community once that information got out. A teacher could eat a
poppy seed muffin or be prescribed some legal medication or purchase
an over-the-counter medicine and trigger a false positive.

Random drug testing as opposed to reasonable suspicion-based testing
will take tons of money away from our already under-funded schools. In
order to avoid a civil rights claim or a claim of a constitutional
violation, nearly all the teachers will have to be tested equally. If
Lingle is so concerned about a drug-free Hawai'i then why did she
refuse Sen. Dan Inouye's ice intervention money that he received from
the federal government? Her commitment to a drug-free Hawai'i depends
on whether or not any political points can be scored.

Since Lingle is eyeing the Senate, I can only hope that Hawai'i has
now seen the true colors of Linda Lingle and her political future is
over in Hawai'i.

JUSTIN HUGHEY

teacher

Lahaina, Maui