THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260444
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
A proposed drug and alcohol policy for Elizabeth City-Pasquotank County Schools has ruffled some faculty feathers, but officials said recent discussions have helped ease concerns.
The Board of Education held off on formally adopting the ``Drug-Free Workplace'' policy Monday night to allow four more weeks of review after making minor changes and clarifying portions that disturbed some employees.
``We just wanted to make everyone feel comfortable with what's there and why it's there, and present a united front,'' board member Robert Thorne, chairman of the board's Policy Committee, said Tuesday. ``For the first time in a long time, we're actually having dialogue on some of these policies.''
Officials began working on the policy several months ago. Federal law requires every school system to have such regulations in place by the first of next year, Thorne said.
But some employees were alarmed by sections of the policy that discussed off-duty drug and alcohol consumption, required the reporting of some prescription drug use to superiors, and threatened to dismiss employees who did not report others' violations.
Superintendent Joseph Peel told the board that some clarifications and one wording change had helped resolve most concerns.
Peel said opening paragraphs in the policy discourage abuse of drugs or alcohol off-duty but do not threaten action against employees who do so.
He said a requirement that employees tell their supervisor about prescription drugs applies only to medications that might affect their job performance. Some teachers had said the policy was an invasion of privacy and could be too broad.
Peel also said he re-wrote the policy's last paragraph to encourage employees to report colleagues' substance abuse rather than require them to report.
``Although we wanted a drug-free workplace, we didn't want that responsibility'' of ``ratting'' on colleagues, said Sandra Hooker, acting president of the Pasquotank chapter of the North Carolina Education Association, which covers about three-fourths of county educators.
Hooker, an instructional specialist at P.W. Moore Elementary School, said the board was responsive to teachers' concerns about the policy.
``I feel much more comfortable with it,'' Hooker said. ``These lines of communication are really open. . . . That makes me feel good.''
The drug-free workplace was one of eight policies addressed in Monday's brief monthly meeting. Others include a general policy on religion and a statement forbidding political candidates to visit classes on behalf of their candidacy.
Thorne said the candidate policy was a response to an incident earlier this month, when 3rd District U.S. Rep. Martin Lancaster accused opponent Walter B. Jones Jr. of stumping during Jones' September visit to Camden High School.
The religion policy is part of a multi-year review of the district's policy manual, Thorne said, and coincidentally has come up at a time when local governments are putting in their two cents about school prayer.
The district policy follows Constitutional rulings regarding religion in schools and allows a moment of silence at schools as long as no instructions are given on how to use the time.
Also Monday, Peel announced that Elizabeth City Middle School Principal Diane Bradford will be the district's principal of the year for 1995. Bradford will later compete for regional honors.
Also congratulated was School-Community Relations Director Charles White for his work on the publication Chalkdust, which received a Blue Ribbon Award from the North Carolina School Public Relations Association. by CNB