With Furlough Fridays starting this week, the ongoing battle over random drug testing for Hawaii public school teachers remains effectively deferred, both in spirit and the letter of the freshly ratified Hawaii State Teachers Association contract with the state.

The current agreement does allow for drug and alcohol testing based on "reasonable suspicion," but says that random testing could only begin when and if it is ruled "constitutionally permissible" by the courts.

According to a memorandum of understanding between the state and HSTA, the random testing, if deemed permissible, would need to comply with the U.S. Department of Transportation rules on drug and alcohol testing and/or state Department of Health rules on substance-abuse testing.

Given the length of time it could take for the courts to issue a final ruling and for testing procedures to be established, it is possible, even likely, that random testing will not begin before the contract expires in 2011.

"The Hawai'i State Teachers Association has always been committed to reaching a drug-testing agreement that does not violate the Constitution," said HSTA president Wil Okabe. "We have always been prepared to implement testing for teachers where there is reasonable suspicion of drug or alcohol use, and we agreed to this in the current contract. The state and HSTA have agreed to await the court's decision on the constitutionality of random suspicion-less drug testing and have agreed to abide by the court's decision."

In the previous two-year contract, which began on July 1, 2007, and expired in June 30 of this year, teachers were given an 11 percent wage increase in exchange for agreeing to random drug testing.

However, HSTA officials said that while in the process of negotiating the terms of the testing, constitutional and privacy issues were raised that indicated the state and union could be vulnerable to legal challenges should the testing proceed.

The testing was to have begun in June 2008. To date, no teacher has yet been tested.

In July 2008, the HSTA asked the Hawaii Labor Relations Board for a declaratory ruling on the legality of random drug testing for teachers. The board dismissed the petition, saying it lacked jurisdiction in the matter.

The union subsequently appealed the dismissal and the case is currently awaiting hearing in Circuit Court.

Also in July 2008, the state filed a grievance with the Labor Relations Board seeking to compel the teachers to abide by the contract. The board has yet to rule on the complaint.

"(HSTA) has the right to challenge if they feel they have a basis to challenge, but our position is the same as it's been from the start: The contract was agreed upon and ratified by their members and they should do what they promised to do," said Marie Laderta, director of the state Department of Human Resource Development.

"The time to negotiate is before you sign the contract," Laderta said. "You don't go back and try to renegotiate what has already been agreed upon."