TAHLEQUAH — Administrators at Tahlequah Public Schools could soon be empowered to force district employees to submit to drug-testing based on “reasonable suspicion.”

School board members were presented several suggested ordinance changes during Monday night’s meeting, in keeping with state law. But they tabled action on four of them, citing concerns the proposals weren’t specific enough, and needed clarification.

Under one suggested policy revision, “The district will require an employee to undergo drug or alcohol testing at any time the superintendent, or designee, reasonably believes that the employee may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol... .”

“It would be the same reasonable suspicion that a police officer has if they pull you over and they suspect that you might have been drinking. [The officer] can give you a sobriety test,” said TPS Superintendent Shannon Goodsell. “[Under the proposal], the school district has the right to suspect that you might have consumed something that you shouldn’t have consumed, and we have the right to ask you to now go and submit to a drug test. It’s kind of up to the administrator, just the same as it is with the officer.”

Board member Luke Foster questioned the policy and what protocols would be followed to back up an administrator’s decision.

“Are there specific guidelines in place to identify suspected substance abuse? Something they look for? I kind of have a hard time just leaving it out there,” said Foster.

He expressed concern for employees’ civil rights, but said he agrees the policy could benefit the district in some instances. Foster added he doesn’t want to learn an administrator may have submitted an employee to drug testing for no legitimate reason.

President Tim Baker agreed.

“Generally speaking, an officer ... says he smelled a strong odor of alcohol, or you’re unsteady on your feet, or you have blood-shot eyes, or you have something that would give them probable cause... ,” said Baker. “They are going to have to establish some form of probable cause ... .”

Goodsell said some discussion had focused on indicators that would lead to probable cause.

“You look like you’ve ingested something, you smell like you’ve ingested something, or you could have had an on-the-job injury, and we think that there’s maybe a possibility that you have taken something,” said Goodsell. “Those are the three areas we have talked about. Can I explain what that looks like? Uh ...”

But Foster said he’d prefer the board put in more details.

“’You look like you’re drunk.’ OK, officers don’t just say, ‘You look like you’re drunk,’” said Foster. “They have signs, physiological signs, that they look for. [For instance], ‘You’re unsteady on your feet.’ I would rather have an idea of what we consider probable cause. If they’re an administrator, they need to be aware of what to look for. It’s a slippery slope. I would feel more comfortable if we had some sort of safeguards for knowing how administrators are going to [make these decisions] so nobody’s just saying, ‘You’ve got a drug problem, get out here and get a test.’”

Goodsell suggested the TPS school resource officers may be able to provide some level of training to administrators on what signs would indicate, under reasonable suspicion, an employee is under the influence.

Board members Monday did approve policy revisions focused on reported child abuse and neglect.

Goodsell said the policy was prompted by the scandal at Penn State, and said employees at TPS are now required to report any suspected abuse or neglect of children to the Department of Human Services first, rather than to a site administrator.

“We want to make sure if there has been some sort of abuse or neglect or something occur, we notify DHS,” said Goodsell.\

“They are the experts in that field.”

In another policy, cyber-bullying was added to the board’s bullying, harassment and intimidation regulations.

“That way, if people are doing some cyber-bullying, we can deal with those issues,” said Goodsell.