Pubdate: Wed, 29 Mar 2006
Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Copyright: 2006 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact:  http://www.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/81
Author: Steve Patterson, Staff Reporter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test)

COURT BACKS BUS DRIVER IN DRUG TEST BATTLE

It was a Friday when the message was left on Lynnann  Wigginton's 
home answering machine.

Wigginton, who has spent half her life driving a school  bus, had 
tested positive for marijuana during a random  drug test, the caller 
said, which meant she would soon  lose her bus driver's permit.

By Monday morning, the stunned Ingleside woman, who  swears she's not 
a drug user, went to the Lake Forest  Medical Center to be retested.

And though that retest came back negative, the Illinois  secretary of 
state had already moved to suspend her  license, preventing Wigginton 
from driving a bus for  the Round Lake School District.

But the Appellate Court of Illinois recently ruled that  because of 
questions surrounding the reliability of the  initial test -- and 
Wigginton's quick move for a  retest, which was negative -- she 
should not have had  her license revoked.

"I was devastated over the whole matter," she said.  "When five or 
six people are handling your urine test  at a lab, you have no idea 
what happens after it leaves  your sight."

The Illinois appeals court decision affirmed a  lower-court ruling, 
but Dave Druker, secretary of state  spokesman, said they will now 
consider whether to  appeal it.

Wigginton, 50, was represented by the Illinois  Education 
Association, whose attorney, Paul Klenck,  said "she took every step 
possible to prove she wasn't  a user," as "she was suspicious of the 
procedure" because she had wrongly tested positive for drugs years  before.

The license revocation meant Wigginton wasn't able to  drive a bus 
for 11 months, taking a pay cut to work as  a crossing guard. Though 
she began driving again this  school year, she said she now hopes to 
pursue damages  for the wages she lost in those 11 months.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman