Controversy has erupted over the Hawaii State Teachers Association's (HSTA's) apparent reluctance to subject its members to random drug testing from school districts, the Honolulu Advertiser reported Aug. 6.

A teachers' contract ratified in June 2007 had called for random drug testing of teachers, who also received pay raises as part of the agreement. But according to State Deputy Attorney General Jim Halvorson, the union is now saying that only teachers with commercial driver's licenses should be required to be tested.

"I think that you can see that this brand new position by the HSTA … does not pass the laugh test," Halvorson said at an Aug. 5 news conference. "Why would we have given significant pay raises to the teachers in order to obtain testing that we've been doing all along?"

Union officials have said they learned after the 2007 contract had been signed that the random testing requirements are unconstitutional. But state officials believe union leaders never intended to allow random testing of their members to be implemented.

Halvorson emphasized that in a recent issue of the union newsletter Teacher Advocate, in which the union seems to back the idea of testing based on reasonable suspicion, the organization likens a more widespread testing policy to internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

The state last month filed a complaint against the union with the Hawaii Labor Relations Board, and is seeking a declaratory ruling from the panel on the legality of a random testing program for teachers.