Whether or not the American Civil Liberties Union succeeds in its "trolling for teachers" publicity stunt to overturn a contract provision for random drug testing, three points are worth remembering: Teaching is a calling, not a mere job -- teachers occupy a unique position of trust and influence. The issue is not one of privacy -- there is no such thing as a right to teach children. Parents and other taxpayers should reasonably be able to expect that public schools will be drug free and especially that classroom teachers in whose care their children are entrusted remain clean and sober. [continues 84 words]
In his report of legislators' response to Hawai'i's crystal methamphetamine ("ice") epidemic, Advertiser Staff Writer Will Hoover, in the Jan. 26 issue, quotes Honolulu Prosecutor Peter Carlisle as saying " ... you've got to identify the people who've got the problem" by way of advocating drug testing in schools. Some years ago, a proposed resolution was introduced at the then-annual HSTA convention in support of drug testing teachers. Naturally, it was voted down decisively by delegates, who thought such a measure might infringe on the fabricated right of privacy -- the one that hid in the "penumbra" of the Constitution for more than a century and a half before it was magically discovered by Justice William O. Douglas in Grisswold vs. Connecticut (1966). [continues 79 words]
