Debate continues over teacher drug testing
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Warren County Education Association president Sheila Gann reiterated her dislike for drug testing at a negotiations committee meeting Monday night.
?Is there a big problem we don?t know about with teachers and drugs?? said Gann, who indicated there?s not a single school system in the state that randomly drug tests its teachers. ?It?s not that we want teachers on drugs. It?s more of a trust issue. Do we trust our teachers??
School board members didn?t buy into that logic and were adamant about drug testing everyone in the school system ? not just teachers.
?We want to test from the director of schools all the way down,? said school board member Edd Cantrell. ?Anybody employed by the school system.?
Added school board member Mike Holland, ?I?m not going to name any names, but we?ve had our fair share of shocks in this school system. This is a positive deterrent and that?s all it is.?
Warren County Education Association representative Kevin Dunlap expressed concerns about the cost of drug testing, saying he thought the money would be better spent if applied to teacher raises or other educational needs.
The school board said it does not plan to increase its spending on drug testing, which is currently around $30,000 a year. At around $20 a test, the system can drug test 1,500 students.
The idea is to still administer 1,500 drug tests a year, only teachers and other school officials would be in the pool and could randomly be selected. It means fewer students would be tested each year.
?If we?re going to drug test one group of people in this system, my opinion is we should drug test them all,? said school board member John Turner. ?It?s not fair to drug test athletes and not anyone else in the system.?
Under current school board policy, any student in middle school or high school who participates in extracurricular activities can be randomly drug tested.
After being told drug testing would not require any additional funding, and the school board will work to make sure teachers aren?t taken away from their classes for extended periods to take the drug tests, the idea seemed to gain some favor.
The teachers union agreed to discuss drug testing with its members and report back to the negotiations committee at the next school board meeting scheduled for April 27.