TOPEKA, Kan. – Kansas state lawmakers are considering legislation that would force all school employees to have background checks, and allow schools to test employees suspected of drug abuse.

Prior to 2002, state law did not require school districts to conduct background checks on school employees, and roughly 35,000 of Kansas’ 42,000 teachers were hired before then.

“This goes back and grabs those 35,000 that have never been touched and then additionally to expand that to all employees of public schools, so that anybody who comes in contact with a kid would then be background checked,” Kansas State Sen. Greg Smith, the Republican sponsor of the legislation, told Fox.

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Smith said as a member of the armed forces and former police officer, “I had to have background checks on both of those jobs and I was subject to random urinalysis.

“Then I become a teacher in 2008, I was fingerprinted and they ran a background check and I thought, ‘Okay, this is great,’ and assumed that is the norm for every teacher and found out it is not,” he said.

The news site reports the problem is that some districts conduct thorough background checks of all school employees, while others don’t. Smith’s legislation would make it mandatory for all employees of Kansas schools.

Of course, the Kansas National Education Association, the statewide teachers union, has raised “concerns” about the bill, though the union leaders are not stupid enough to completely reject the legislation.

The union told Fox it’s neutral on Smith’s bill, but is taking issue with a couple of its provisions.

“Our concern about fingerprints is that fingerprints are not predictive of future conduct,” David Schauner, the union’s lawyer, told Fox.

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The point he’s missing is that fingerprints are necessary for background checks, and background checks reveal past behavior. Past behavior is quite frequently a good indicator of future behavior, whether the union cares to admit it or not.

“The second piece about drug testing is perhaps the one we have the biggest global concern about,” Schauner said. “Whether I pass or fail, that drug test ends up in the hands of the State Department of Education and theoretically is available to every prospective employer.”

So what?

If an employee passes a drug test, and a future employer gets his hands on the results through the Department of Education, it would only bolster his or her chances for future employment.

If a school employee fails a drug test – a serious breach of the public’s trust – then he or she should be fired. If that person doesn’t want prospective future employers to find a history of positive test results, then they shouldn’t use drugs.

Parents have a right to demand safe, clean and sober school personnel working with their children. School employees have no right to privacy that trumps the safety of students.