Read the opinion

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The school board's safety concerns do not outweigh the privacy interests of Kanawha County teachers and other school employees subject to the board's new random drug-testing policy, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

In a written opinion published Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin expanded on his decision last month to block the school board from subjecting its employees to random drug screening.

In October, the school board voted 4-1 to approve random drug testing for 45 types of employees deemed safety sensitive, including not only teachers but administrators, counselors, coaches, custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.

In response, the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia filed a lawsuit seeking to brand the new policy, which was slated to go into effect Jan. 1, as unconstitutional.

At a Dec. 29 hearing, Goodwin enjoined the school board from putting the policy into effect. He said the school board had not presented any evidence of a pervasive drug problem that would justify overriding the civil liberties of the individuals to be tested, as protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Thursday's opinion elaborates on the judge's reasoning for blocking the random drug testing.

Read the opinion

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The school board's safety concerns do not outweigh the privacy interests of Kanawha County teachers and other school employees subject to the board's new random drug-testing policy, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

In a written opinion published Thursday, Chief U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin expanded on his decision last month to block the school board from subjecting its employees to random drug screening.

In October, the school board voted 4-1 to approve random drug testing for 45 types of employees deemed safety sensitive, including not only teachers but administrators, counselors, coaches, custodians, cafeteria workers and bus drivers.

In response, the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia filed a lawsuit seeking to brand the new policy, which was slated to go into effect Jan. 1, as unconstitutional.

At a Dec. 29 hearing, Goodwin enjoined the school board from putting the policy into effect. He said the school board had not presented any evidence of a pervasive drug problem that would justify overriding the civil liberties of the individuals to be tested, as protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Thursday's opinion elaborates on the judge's reasoning for blocking the random drug testing.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the danger of great harm to people must be concrete rather than speculative to justify suspicionless search, Goodwin wrote. "A concrete danger must be an actual, threatened danger and not some perceived potential danger. To justify such a suspicionless search, I must not engage in a speculative exercise to find remote risks of horrible disasters," the opinion states.

Goodwin noted that in his testimony during December's hearing, Kanawha County Superintendent Ron Duerring said the policy was put into place in response to a few incidents of drug use and with the general intent to prevent any harm from befalling students.

The school board also failed to present any evidence that the unspecified danger that teachers and other employees might pose to students is inherent to their jobs, Goodwin wrote.

"A train, nuclear reactor, or firearm in the hands of someone on drugs presents an actual concrete risk to numerous people - the same cannot be said for a teacher wielding a history textbook. The current state of evidence is such that the safety interests at stake are hypothetical and they cannot be extrapolated to outweigh the employees' privacy interests, which are not diminished in any way by virtue of their employment in a public school," the opinion states.

"To be clear, I am not suggesting that the [school board] are required to wait for an actual injury to occur. But [they] must demonstrate that the threat to student safety is one that is a concrete, actual danger that permeates the ordinary job performance of each of the relevant positions. The [school board] may not abandon the Fourth Amendment for nebulous risks."

Goodwin's opinion does not address the county's drug-testing policy for Metro 911 employees. Earlier this week, lawyers for the emergency operation center filed a motion to intervene in the school board case, saying that the judge's ruling could affect its own policy.

Reach Andrew Clevenger at acleven...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1723.