Debate Over Teacher Drug Tests Spreads to West Virginia

Crazy!

Check out all the stories on http://detentionslip.org and you might agree that drug testing is needed.

If possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor, punished less severely than speeding 10 mpm over the speed limit, smoking it should not be a reason for job suspension - and smoking it shows up for at least a month, while crack and cocaine use doesn't show up after three days. I'd much rather have someone who used pot on the weekend teaching my kids than someone who did crack three days ago. As for students; those under 18 should be tested for alcohol use as well. You can not judge teachers and students by the same standards - you cannot legislate morality or pretend to moralize wages. But, in either case, until testing is refined it shouldn't be used to dictate hiring or employment issues. We know that anyone can fool us into trusting them with our children; drugs don't have to be the determining factor - ask your local priest!

Teacher Drug Testing

If drug testing teachers is unconstitutional, all drug testing is unconstitutional. This would mean that it would no longer be legal to test airline pilots, military, law enforcement, etc. A terrible position for teachers as student role models.

I don't know if testing employees of all sorts for drugs is unconstitutional, but it is certainly unAmerican. There is no more morality in running companies like dictatorships than running countries as dictatorships.

drug tests

The seizure of a bodily fluid, body hair, or whatever is collected for the sake of discovering 'foreign substances' certainly indicates to me a violation of the precept against unreasonable search and seizure. Employers have long enjoyed violating our Constitutional rights in this way, getting around it on the flimsy claim that if a person doesn't want to take a drug test, he or she can work somewhere else. I strongly disagree with this ruling by the courts and propose that the drug tests are taken under duress -- $7.00 per hour isn't appealing for a single person having to pay their own way in this world, and in fact, is quite a laughable idea without heavy subsidization.

I do not subscribe to the 'I'm innocent, value me!' idea of 'if there's nothing to hide, show it all,' policy, either. I do subscribe to the 'I'm still showing my support for my Constitution by exercising my Constitutional rights' policy.

Lets get to the crux of the matter. Businesses say insurance costs are cheaper if they institute drug testing; yet how many people come to work impaired by a hangover or prescription drug like Xanex? How confident does it make you feel to think someone with a raging hangover, or is still a little drunk, or stoned out of their minds on a highly addictive substance like alcohol or Xanex teaching your kids, driving them to school, or working in your factory, office, or McDonalds?

Please, this is hypocrisy of the utmost degree, and falls flat on its face, from where i stand. A much better solution would be computer-aided testing of performance ability, and someone who habitually fails the performance test could have a legitimate illness, an addiction (legal or not), or insomnia. Either way, they could be monitored and/or referred to counseling or a physician, if the problem persists, and after the initial cost of paying for the equipment for performance evaluation, could quite possibly save the employer hundreds of thousands, in workman's comp claims.

Students

At the high school I attend a random drug testing policy was just passed for the students. If the teachers have the right to refuse a drug test, why shouldn't the students? I cannot see how this drug testing would ever promote the safety of students and other teachers.

What this says about teachers in Hawaii ...

Maybe it says that Hawaii has teachers who care about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Those are the people who I'd want educating the next generation -- not contract negotiators willing to trade their rights as Americans for money.

What does this say about Hawaii's Teachers Association?

The Hawaii State Teachers Association now has an image problem of their own making. How will they overcome the suspicion that they are covering up members known to have a substance problem? People who have direct contact with school children?

Ruling or no, it simply looks bad.