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One would almost believe that our public schools have become modern opium dens if you follow the news coming out of some area school districts.

Random drug testing appears to be the latest trend, and Jennifer Kern, youth policy manager for the Drug Policy Alliance, wrote this week that White House officials are "touring the country, hosting summits designed to entice local educators to start drug testing their students — randomly and without cause."

Random drug testing of students is only one part of the equation. Edgewood remains the only Butler County district randomly testing its students — with three students testing positive so far since last fall — because Fairfield school officials and parents decided against a testing program after studying it extensively.

The other part of the equation are the employees of a school district. Ohio school districts are already required to test the drivers of buses and other vehicles for drug use, and there's no question that program is needed to ensure the safety of young passengers and other motorists. Too many recent accidents in this region involving school buses have also involved drug abuse by drivers.

So what about other employees, including the largest group — teachers?

The Madison Board of Education last month became the first district in Butler County to implement random drug testing for all non-teaching employees. And that decision revealed mixed feelings over drug testing: The Madison board itself was split, voting 3-2 to approve the program.

Why non-teaching staff? Madison's administrators, custodians, aides and cafeteria workers are not members of an organized bargaining unit, and thus the board can impose new requirements without consideration for the requirements of a union contract. Madison school board President Glenn Cappel, who advocated random testing for all non-union staffers, said he wants to bring drug testing to the bargaining table the next time a new contract is negotiated with teachers.

Similarly, when Edgewood school officials were selling the idea of random testing of students last year to parents, they were asked why teachers aren't tested, too. School officials indicated they would introduce drug testing as an issue during the next contract negotiations.

And Katie McNeil, a longtime member of the Middletown Board of Education and a member of the Butler Tech board, told staff writer Megan Gildow recently that she would support drug testing for school employees. "It's just part of doing business," she said.

Before some school districts start buying plastic cups in bulk, we'd suggest they take a deep breath and consider:

• Like it or not, the local teacher unions are not going to allow drug testing into their contracts unless school boards offer something — such as dollars and fringe benefits — in exchange. Most of the districts in Butler County are already running on tight budgets, and — aside from the expense of the tests themselves — the cost of "convincing" teachers to submit to drug tests may be too high. As Gildow has reported, the National Education Association, which includes the Ohio Education Association, has opposed employee drug testing for more than 20 years, saying it is "unprofessional, degrading, unnecessary, expensive, an invasion of privacy and unconstitutional."

• Does a drug problem actually exist with students and/or employees? Or are school boards following a conservative agenda that is mostly for show and intended to bring unions to heel? Last fall, Edgewood officials offered only anecdotal evidence of a drug problem before introducing random testing of students. We believe school districts should offer significant documentation — suspensions, disciplinary actions, arrests — to constituents when building a case for testing. If sufficient evidence exists of a drug problem, we think public support will follow.

• While we're not naive enough to believe that some teachers — like the rest of the population — don't have substance abuse problems, we trust that the majority of our educators are professionals who deserve to be trusted and respected.

• Madison Local Schools has also enrolled in the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's Drug-Free Workplace Program which reasonably requires drug testing for new hires, for employees after accidents, and for employees actually suspected of abusing drugs. That approach, according to recent testimony in the Ohio Senate, can be implemented without negotiated contract changes and the bureau offers discounts on the costs to districts.

We can support that more reasonable approach — testing new hires, after accidents and on suspicion — and see it as a good compromise. But we strongly remind our elected boards that schools should be comfortable havens of learning, expression and free thinking, not paranoid places where everyone is suspected of wrongdoing until proven innocent. Let common sense guide these decisions.

Do you think the drug problem is large enough in our schools to warrant random drug testing of teachers, students and employees?

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