May 13, 2007 - An editorial by the publisher of the Central Kentucky News-Journal asks is "Drug testing a double standard?"
In Nelson County, the county school system instituted a drug testing policy for its students several years ago. This year, the school system is attempting to institute a similar policy for its teachers.The teacher's union is opposed to testing for teachers.
We've seen the move toward student drug testing as we read area newspapers and listen and watch the news. Our schools are either testing or considering it for students, and, as I recall, there hasn't been much debate over whether it should or would be instituted.
Some school somewhere tested the waters, the testing procedure met legal standards and - poof - other schools followed.
He concludes, "I don't know if teachers deserve or need to be tested, but the question does create a double standard and, if nothing else, creates a credibility issue between the teachers and those they are hired to educate."
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TT - It's amazing that schools declare drug free zones, run random locker checks, use dogs to search for contraband drugs, and randomly test students for drugs, but exempt teachers from the same enforcement. Fewer students are arrested for drugs in school than teachers.
In Galveston, Texas, a teacher was arrested when search dogs found marijuana in a teacher's car. No student drugs were found.
A Baltimore, Maryland teacher stopped to buy drugs at 7:15 am on her way to school. A Kentucky teacher mistakenly text messaged a state trooper while he was at dinner with his wife to set up a drug buy where the teacher was arrested.
In New Jersey, a teacher's union representative and teacher was arrested after stealing a student's prescription drugs.
Franklyn, Tennesee - Drug sniffing dogs zeroed in on the teacher's car where they found marijuana, baggies, a semi-automatic gun and drug scales. The only one arrested when eight drug sniffing dogs went to a Cedartown, Georgia school was a substitute teacher. In Belen, New Mexico, the teacher told students when dogs were going to be on campus and offered to hide any drugs or drug paraphernalia. Students in a Columbus, Ohio school thought the search dogs were a demonstration for an anti-drug program. The dogs were there as part of an investigation to help find a crack cocaine pipe the teacher hid in a pile of books. The eighth graders were astounded.
Those are just a few of the teachers arrested for drug use. It isn't just using drugs. A number of teachers have been arrested and sentenced for selling drugs, not necessarily to their students, but to other addicts.
Unions, more than teachers, resist drug testing. The question is why.
