news-record.com

The Web site for Graham County Schools provides this evocative description:

"Graham County is located in the far reaches of Western North Carolina in the beautiful Great Smoky Mountains of the southern Appalachians. The region is home to some of the highest and most remote mountains east of the Mississippi with elevations ranging from 1,177 to 5,560 feet. Graham County is nestled among hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness full of stunning mountain landscapes and many breathtaking views."

Not even that sheltered environment, however, can shield Graham County's three public schools and its 1,300 students from the dangers of life in 21st century America &ellipses; where even teachers can pose a threat.

So three years ago, the Graham County Board of Education enacted a policy subjecting nearly all employees to random tests for drugs and alcohol. Any employee found to have a "detectable amount" of an illegal drug or alcohol in his or her body would receive a reprimand and a one-time chance to enter and successfully complete a rehabilitation program.

A teacher at Robbinsville High School, Susan Jones, and the N.C. Association of Educators challenged the policy in court as a violation of the state constitution's protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

A judge in Graham County Superior Court last year upheld the school board's policy, but the N.C. Court of Appeals reversed it in a unanimous ruling Tuesday.

Writing for the court, Judge Linda Stephens strongly took the side of individual rights against what she called a "remarkably intrusive" violation of personal privacy.

Stephens' opinion was both stirring in its defense of individual liberty and disdainful of the Graham County Board of Education.

She began with a quote from the U.S. Supreme Court:

"The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

The source: Justice Antonin Scalia, who himself was citing an earlier giant of the court, Louis Brandeis.

Stephens presented the thinking of Graham school board members as they struggled to explain in deposition testimony why they adopted their policy.

Pamela Carringer Moody: "As I stated earlier, that this county is becoming aware more than ever of the issue of drugs in our county. I could bring you papers after paper after paper, and it is all people I know that I went to school with, a lot of them, graduated with, some of them high honors, they're -- that are behind bars as we speak."

Lois Ann Pressley: "To keep the kids -- to keep the kids safe and make sure they (sic) ain't nobody on drugs."

William Jackie Adams, asked what specific problem the board was addressing with its sweeping drug-testing policy: "I don't know that they (sic) were a problem ..."

Not exactly an articulate group. It's almost cruel to embarrass them with their own words. But it speaks to the legal issue, which was their inability to articulate a reason why every employee should be subjected to random testing.

"The board acknowledges that there is no evidence in the record of any drug problem among its employees," Stephens noted. "There is also a complete want of evidence that any student or employee has ever been harmed because of the presence of 'a detectable amount of an illegal drug or of alcohol' in an employee's body."

Without compelling evidence that real-world circumstances warrant this action of the board, Stephens concluded, employees' privacy rights and protection against unreasonable search and seizure must prevail.

Guilford County Schools' better policy states: "The system reserves the right to test any employee upon reasonable suspicion of drug or alcohol use."

In other words, if a teacher's behavior indicates he or she may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, then test. It shouldn't be so hard to see. Otherwise, leave him or her alone.

This probably wasn't a difficult case for Stephens and her colleagues to decide. Yet, the Graham County board members, despite their verbal fumbling, tried to do what was best for students. They hoped to keep drugs and alcohol out of their schools. Their fault was forgetting that employees are individuals, with personal rights, most of whom care as deeply as anyone about children's safety. They didn't deserve to be treated as if they were guilty of something until proved innocent.

Graham County may be remote and isolated, but constitutional rights reach even into the farthest mountains.