MOOSE LAKE MAN SUES SCHOOL OVER DRUG TEST

Rumors, angry gestures and crank phone calls ran Duane "Dewey''
Anderson and his wife, Dianne, out of Moose Lake, the couple
testified in Duluth federal court this week.

They said the harassment they received is linked to Dewey Anderson
being suspended from his job as a Moose Lake school bus driver
because of an insufficient drug test.

Anderson, 57, was suspended because the School District said that he
provided 15 fewer milliliters of urine than was required for a drug
test -- an amount that would fill two soda straws -- and because he
refused to take a second test.

Anderson filed a civil lawsuit against the Moose Lake School District
and its former superintendent, Nancy Kaldor, who is now
superintendent of schools at Columbia Heights, Minn.

Anderson is asking for damages for slander, emotional distress, wage
loss and medical expenses.

On April 23, 1998, Anderson was selected for an unannounced, random
test for drugs and alcohol. A split sample is required for testing.
For a split sample, 45 milliliters of urine are needed. The School
District said that Anderson provided only 30 milliliters.

Anderson testified Wednesday that he provided 60 milliliters -- 30
milliliters in each of two vials.

Kaldor said that Anderson was suspended from employment for the sole
reason that he failed to provide a sufficient urine sample and that
she understood that federal regulations required that he be suspended
until he furnished a sample, tested negative and had an evaluation
from a substance abuse professional.

Peter Nickitas, Anderson's attorney, told jurors that Kaldor's letter
of suspension had "implied defamatory disclosures'' because it
included the statement: "... federal regulations provide that refusal
to provide an adequate urine sample constitutes a refusal to submit
to testing, which is deemed to mean that the driver would have tested
positive.''

Anderson testified Wednesday that he believed it would have been an
admission of failing the first drug test if he took a second test.

One of Anderson's claims is that School District employees unlawfully
made the information of his drug test public. He contends that the
suspension he received from the School District led others to believe
he used drugs.

Kaldor testified that she never regarded Anderson as a drug user.

The plaintiff has been on a leave of absence from his bus driving
job. A hearing will be held to determine his future employment with
the district after the trial.

Anderson said he received more than 200 crank phone calls after word
got out about the drug test. People have made obscene gestures and
uttered profanity at him, he said.

He said he went to a Moose Lake service station to have a tire put on
a rim and mistakenly brought along the wrong size tire, leading the
auto serviceman to say: "If you weren't strung out on drugs so bad,
you'd know what you were doing.''

Anderson said he's never used alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs.

Dianne Anderson testified that people who used to be friendly and
talk to her in Moose Lake either glared at her or turned and walked
away after her husband's suspension.

The Andersons have a 220-acre farm a mile west of Moose Lake. Dianne
Anderson testified Wednesday that the couple, who have been married
for 29 years, were forced to sell their 60 head of beef cattle and
much of their farm equipment to pay for a move to Forsyth, Mo., in
the Ozark Mountains. They are living in a house trailer. Dianne is
working as a school librarian and Dewey has worked a variety of
part-time jobs.

One of their sons is living at the dormant farm with his wife.

John O'Donnell, the Mendota Heights, Minn., attorney representing
Kaldor and the school district, argued that Kaldor only said that
Anderson didn't provide a sufficient sample for the drug test.

There was no evidence presented at trial that Kaldor or the school
district said that Anderson abused drugs or failed a drug test.

O'Donnell pointed out to jurors that the Andersons had been losing
money on the farm and had traveled to Missouri for recreation before
moving there.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim is presiding over the trial, which
is adjourned until Monday morning when attorneys are scheduled to
make their closing arguments.