Wednesday, March 26, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- A bill allowing school districts to fire teachers who get into trouble with drugs ran into skepticism before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
"This bill has lots of problems," said Chairman Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks, himself a teacher.
Assembly Bill 196, which gained strong support from local school boards, would permit the suspension or dismissal of a teacher who was arrested on a drug charge but then went through a treatment program and had the record sealed.
Patti Hawkins, assistant superintendent of the Carson City School District, said teachers are held to a higher standard. It doesn't make sense, she said, to have the schools teaching an anti-drug policy and then an employee get a "slap on the hand" when arrested on a narcotics violation.
Hank Etchemendy, lobbyist for the Nevada School Board Association, called it a double standard. A pupil found in possession of drugs must be disciplined, yet there is nothing the district can do to a teacher who gets caught with drugs and then completes a treatment plan.
"The rights of children have to be protected," said Nat Lommori, superintendent of the Lyon County School District.
He said the bill would not take away the license of a teacher but permit the boards to take disciplinary action. The boards can't act now unless there's a conviction.
There are people who approach the school district and say they have drug problems and they receive help, Lommori said. But these people have not been arrested. "That's the difference," he said.
Assemblywoman Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, pointed out the diversionary treatment program is permitted for first-time offenders and does not extend to drug dealers.
Anderson worried that AB196 would permit the school districts to look at sealed records from the distant past and then take action against a teacher who has not had any problems in recent years.
Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, opposed the bill, saying people who complete the treatment program were not convicted of the offense. The school board would be trying to substitute its judgment in place of a judge and experts in drugs, he said.
Of particular concern, Peck said, is the the bill would permit the school board access to sealed records.
"I see no justification for going back into the sealed records," Peck said.
Al Bellister of the Nevada State Education Association had several concerns, including opening sealed records to the school boards. There is already authority in the law to fire people for unfitness and unprofessional conduct, Bellister said.
The committee did not take action and Anderson said he did not know when it would consider the measure again.
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