TEACHERS OK MANDATORY DRUG TESTING

HONOLULU - Hawaii's public school teachers may not fully support the
conditions demanded by the state, but they still approved a new
contract that includes mandatory random drug testing.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association announced Wednesday evening that
63 percent of 13,000 teachers participated in the ratification vote,
with 61.3 percent approving and 38.2 percent disapproving.

Most union members voted last week, but results were delayed because
absentee ballots could be cast until Wednesday.

Some teachers had objected to the random drug testing clause, saying
it showed the state wasn't treating teachers as professionals. Others
said people in positions responsible for children should be tested.

"I don't think there's very many happy teachers, regardless of what
side they were on,'' Joan Lee Husted, HSTA executive director, said
after the vote was announced.

"I think it's going to have a negative effect on the DOE (Department
of Education) recruiting teachers from the Mainland,'' she said.
"People are just not going to be willing to come into a school
district that is going to drug test its teachers.''

The contract also gives the members 4 percent raises in each of the
next two years, among other benefits.

Maui public schoolteacher Barry Wurst said he was happy that his
colleagues approved the new two-year contract even if he didn't
support all of the terms imposed by the state.

"I didn't want to have to go back to the negotiating table when there
really wasn't much more to negotiate," Wurst said following the HSTA's
announcement of the ratification.

Wurst, a special education teacher at King Kamehameha III Elementary
School in Lahaina, was an elected union member on the negotiating
team. Talks opened in June 2006, but there was no movement until April
when Gov. Linda Lingle's administration delivered an offer of raises
and the nonnegotiable mandate of random drug testing for teachers.

"The thing was it was put down as a take it or leave it. There was no
negotiation on the governor's part. It was kind of shoved down our
throats," Wurst said. "I was livid about that. To me it wasn't
negotiation. It was really, really disappointing."

Wurst said he understood teachers' concern and even expressed anger
over the demand to implement random drug testing =AD with the
possibility of false positives. In a previous job more than a decade
ago, Wurst said he failed random drug testing twice and later was told
it was because he was eating poppy seed muffins. Oils in poppy seeds
can mimic the chemicals found in heroin and morphine, which is made
from a variety of poppy.

"I could see the same thing happening to people that happened to me
and none of us want innocent people with false positives," Wurst said.

But he pointed out that the contract provisions require that the
teachers' union and the state Department of Education develop
protocols and guidelines for the drug testing before it begins.

"It's not something that's going to happen overnight. By the time it
happens, it won't be alien to our teachers and hopefully we will have
discussed it more thoroughly."

Wurst said there were a number of teachers who didn't seem bothered by
the random drug testing mandate, accepting it as a positive action
that was inevitable. "A lot of teachers are parents themselves and
they say 'Yeah, I don't want my kids with teachers who take drugs.'
"

Wurst said with drug testing required of police officers and
firefighters, many teachers knew they would be next.

"We're on the frontlines working with children and we know we want a
drug-free environment, a drug-free workplace."

Overall, Wurst said he believes the contract is a good one, given the
total 11.2 percent raise after two years and a provision to pay up to
25 percent more over one year to educators who work beyond the normal
school day as happens with teachers involved in student band and drama
performances, as well as with students in science and math
competitions and projects.

"I think it's one of our better contracts," Wurst said.

The state called for drug testing after several Oahu public school
teachers were arrested in recent months for allegedly dealing drugs.

In February, a Windward Oahu public school teacher was charged with
conspiring to distribute more than two pounds of cocaine and 990
tablets of the illegal drug Ecstasy.

In December, a Leilehua High School teacher pleaded guilty to charges
that he sold crystal meth to an undercover deputy sheriff.