The War on Drugs at School vs. Teachers’ Expectation of Privacy
By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair
Over the last two months sixteen Houston Independent School District employees, including 11 teachers, have been arrested on drug charges—mostly involving marijuana or prescription drugs found in parked vehicles on school campuses. Two of the employees were arrested twice. Most of the arrests came after anonymous tips, prompting HISD police to use drug-sniffing dogs to hit on narcotics in the vehicles.
“This is a matter of great concern to us and we wanted to make sure that our community understood that we will take whatever action is necessary to make sure our schools are safe,” HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra said in response to the sudden rash of arrests.
Besides pressing for the immediate termination of the arrested employees, Saavedra informed the Houston Chronicle that the school district is contemplating a plan to use drug sniffing dogs to search for narcotics in employee parking lots in every HISD school.
Current HISD policy, according to the Chronicle, only permits random drug tests for bus drivers, police officers, and other security personnel. While the executive director of the Congress of Houston Teachers said he was a little concerned that the drug-dog searches might violate civil liberties, Chuck Robinson minimized his concern by adding that “we have to maintain public confidence and trust in our employees.” (more…)
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