Pubdate: Tue, 30 Dec 2008
Source: Asheville Citizen-Times (NC)
Copyright: 2008 Asheville Citizen-Times
Contact: http://www.citizen-times.com/contact/letters.shtml
Website: http://www.citizen-times.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/863
Author: Jordan Schrader
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS TEACHER DRUG TESTING

A federal judge in West Virginia on Monday dealt a legal setback to 
random drug testing of teachers, which is also being challenged in a 
Western North Carolina school system.

U.S. District Judge Robert Goodwin granted a temporary injunction 
sought by a teachers' union preventing the Kanawha County, W.Va., 
school system from implementing a new drug policy Jan. 1.

Goodwin said random testing would force teachers to submit to an 
unconstitutional and unjustified search.

He rejected the school board's argument that the policy was needed 
because teachers hold safety-sensitive jobs, a stance also taken by 
the Graham County, N.C., school board. The judge questioned why the 
Kanawha board didn't also test teachers for tropical diseases.

"Total security for us and our children is only possible -- if 
unlikely -- in a totalitarian state," Goodwin said.

A lawsuit by the N.C. Association of Educators has halted a Graham 
County Schools policy requiring district employees to submit to 
random drug and alcohol testing.

A Superior Court judge this year sided with the district, whose 
policy remains on hold pending an N.C. Court of Appeals decision.

Former Graham school board chairman Mitch Colvard said Monday he 
hopes North Carolina judges have more concern for schoolchildren's safety.

"I think maybe North Carolina might be a more conservative state," 
said Colvard, one of the policy's earliest and strongest backers.

"Your first responsibility is to provide a safe equal learning 
atmosphere for all students, and you know, you've just got to do what 
you can do. I feel like for it to be safe, it's got to be drug-free," 
Colvard said.

Opponents argue Graham teachers don't have a drug problem and the 
district's current policy of testing new employees and those with 
suspicious behavior is enough.

Adam Wolf, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said 
the few such policies nationwide "have been rejected by the court at 
nearly every turn."

He praised Monday's decision, which isn't binding outside Kanawha County.

"It's a ruling that should and needs to be heard nationwide," Wolf said.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake