Pubdate: Tue, 22 Jul 2008 Source: Honolulu Advertiser (HI) Copyright: 2008 The Honolulu Advertiser, Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/uXtrz8Lm Website: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/195 Author: Paul Schraff Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n668/a07.html DRUG TESTING POLICY IS NOT UNCONSTITUTIONAL In her July 10 Island Voices column, Kim Coco Iwamoto opined that the Department of Education could not implement random drug testing because no state "actor" can constitutionally conduct such testing. Her analysis, however, appears to be based on situations where the state imposes random drug testing by law or policy. That is not this case. The drug testing policy that the DOE has not implemented is in the teachers' collective bargaining agreement. Legally, that constitutes consent. As one federal appeals court stated over 15 years ago: "Even where a drug testing policy has been held to be constitutionally infirm, a public employee may not pursue a civil rights suit based on that infirmity where his union and his employer agree to operate under that policy." In short, it is not unconstitutional for the DOE and the state to implement that agreed-upon testing. Paul Schraff Kane'ohe - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin