The call for random drug testing for Department of Education employees and other state workers has been renewed after the arrest Monday of two Mililani Middle School teachers for allegedly smoking marijuana before reporting for work.

Parents have called The Advertiser suggesting random drug screening for state teachers, while Mililani Middle principal Roger Kim said he feels drug testing policies for DOE personnel and all state workers need to be evaluated.

The issue first arose in October after the arrest of Leilehua High teacher Lee Anzai on charges of selling crystal methamphetamine. Key legislators said then that they expect bills will be introduced in the coming session that call for random drug screening of teachers. However, some education officials expressed concerns over both the cost and effectiveness of such programs. At that time, education officials said the Anzai case was an aberration.

Yesterday, DOE spokeswoman Sandy Goya said the department is "committed to maintaining a drug-free workplace" and any new policy issues "would require further discussion."

Currently, there is no compulsory drug testing of new DOE hires and no random drug screening, she said.

However, Kim said drug screening may be something the department should look into.

"We do background checks in the department," he said, "but maybe drug testing may be something we should consider at the point of hire.

"And random tests could be done on everybody." That includes administrators, Kim said.

Seventh-grade math teacher Lisa Luhrsen and seventh-grade language arts teacher Benjamin Ayson are on paid leave pending the outcome of a DOE investigation into charges they smoked marijuana before showing up for work Monday.

The two have been at the school for several years, Kim said, and both have "good rapport" with staff and students. They work with the seventh-grade core team, whose students are on vacation. Mililani Middle school is multitrack and Luhrsen and Ayson's students won't be back in school until late December.

Ayson and Luhrsen were not working with students when they were confronted by school administrators Monday morning, or when they were arrested around noon. Both paid $50 bail and will make a court appearance on Dec. 26.

Yesterday, Kim said the school would be talking with all students about the situation, and hoped to incorporate the issue into the school's character education program and allow students to express their feelings.

Parent Kimi Lee said she believes drug screening when teachers are hired and random drug testing afterward would be appropriate for the school system.

"The Department of Education should be required to take the drug urine screen," Lee said. "They're teaching our children, who are innocent.

"If the law can require no smoking 20 feet away from a workplace entrance, I don't see why they can't make a law about drug screening. It's important to me that our schools are drug free."

But Roger Takabayashi, Hawai'i State Teachers' Association president, believes teachers alone should not be singled out for testing, especially when thousands of other employees come in contact with school children. Instead, he said, testing should be done on all employees who come in contact with children. That would include 24,700 full-time and part-time employees ranging from administrators to teachers and custodians and other staff, as well as thousands more casual hourly employees — including substitute teachers.

"The question is the safety of our children," Takabayashi said. "All employees who have contact with children they do a criminal search on, but if there should be random drug testing, it should be done on the entire population that has contact with children."

Takabayashi said any substantial kind of drug testing would be costly, and would probably have to come out of money given schools under the Weighted Student Formula.

"I know teachers are not afraid to be drug tested, but the cost is a concern. It would truly be devastating to the school's budget," Takabayashi said. "And if any legislation is passed, they would have to put millions (of dollars) in to pay for it."

Kim raised the broader issue of public safety, noting that any state worker involved with public safety should be subject to random drug testing.

"Why single out teachers?" he said.

The two teachers could not be reached for comment.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.