Hawai‛i teachers now subject to reasonable-suspicion and random drug and alcohol testing
Teachers in the State of Hawai‛i will now be subject to reasonable-suspicion and random drug and alcohol testing, after members of the Hawai‛i State Teachers Association (HSTA) voted 61% to 38% to approve a new collective bargaining agreement that contains the controversial testing clause. HSTA officials attribute the split in votes to this clause. The last contract was backed by 93% of teachers two years ago. A top union official is worried that Hawai‛i could have trouble hiring teachers under the new contract. “I think you are going to have a lot of very angry teachers,” says Joan Husted, HSTA’s executive director. “We believe it will have a chilling effect on recruiting.” The Hawai‛i Department of Education (DOE), which already tests bus drivers, some physical therapists, and auto mechanics instructors, will talk with the union to come up with a system, says DOE spokesman Greg Knudsen. The Hawai‛i Board of Education also will be involved, says member Denise Matsumoto, chairwoman of the board's committee on collective bargaining. The contract states "principals will not select teachers for random drug testing, nor will they or the DOE administer or read the results of the testing.” According to the terms of the contract provision, an independent, certified laboratory will be hired to do the testing.
States with school districts that test teachers for drugs include Kentucky and Tennessee, according to attorney Follace Fields II, who in 2004 represented a Kentucky elementary school teacher challenging the Knott County schools' random drug-testing policy. In a lawsuit in federal court, Mr. Fields argued the testing violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and allowed schools to look at personal medical records protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. According to Mr. Fields, the suit delayed the testing for some months, but a judge ultimately upheld the testing provision on the grounds school officials had the authority to test teachers to ensure a safe environment for children. In Hawai‛i the issue of drug testing in schools has been highlighted by six drug-related arrests of DOE employees in the past eight months. Legislators even introduced a bill, now dead, that would have expanded drug testing to all public school employees who work close to children if there was reasonable suspicion they were intoxicated. Legislators have said the state will be able to fund the teacher contract, which would cost $119,380,888.
Honolulu Star Bulletin
By Alexandre Da Silva
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: Hawai‛i has one statewide school district. The Kentucky case referred to is Crager v. Board of Education of Knott County, which is summarized below. A short overview of the law regarding drug testing of school employees is included in the Q&A resource at the second link. The difference between the Hawai‛i approach and the others explored in the overview is that the testing has been agreed to through collective bargaining.]
[NSBA School Law pages on Crager v. Bd. of Educ. of Knott County]
[NSBA Leadership Insider on legal Q&A]