Public school teachers displayed a disturbing lack of integrity when their union reneged on the random drug tests they agreed to in their contract with the state.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association last year accepted "random drug and alcohol testing procedures" as part of a two-year contract that paid them 4 percent annual raises and a step increase.

The agreement, which required drug tests to start June 30, was signed by HSTA president Roger Takabayashi and other top union leaders and ratified by 61 percent of the teachers voting.

The 13,000 public school teachers have already started collecting most of the pay raises.

Gov. Linda Lingle and the Board of Education have fought for months over who would pay for drug testing, with the board seeking $500,000 for a six-person bureaucracy to test one-fourth of the teachers each year while Lingle said only 1 percent of the teachers needed to be tested annually at a cost of $35 per test.

While the politicians fought, the HSTA assured us they were ready to implement the drug agreement whenever the governor and the board worked out their differences.

"If they want us to fill a cup, we will," Takabayashi said in January, but the HSTA started back-pedaling when it looked like Lingle and the board were near a deal.

Last Thursday, HSTA executive director Mike McCartney notified the state that the union won't honor the agreement on random drug testing because HSTA now believes such testing violates the state and federal constitutions.

"Today, both parties know much more about the legal issues surrounding drug testing that were not known at the time of the initial agreement," McCartney said.

Nonsense. There have been no constitutional rulings breaking new ground on employee drug testing in the last year — nor any legal precedent for HSTA claiming the right to unilaterally decide what is constitutional and what is not.

This has moved beyond the issue of whether drug testing is right or wrong to a question of the integrity of the teachers who stand at the front of our children's classrooms.

If they thought drug testing was wrong, they should have had the courage to reject that part of the contract in last year's negotiations and dared Lingle to make it a strike issue.

To agree to random drug testing and then renege after the pay raises were already in their pockets was plain dishonorable.

The honest thing to do if they've had a change of heart would be to implement what they agreed to and seek legal remedy to have testing ruled unconstitutional.

If the court agrees with them, an injunction would likely be imposed before any drug tests were done — and if the court doesn't agree with them, the teachers would have no grounds to refuse the tests they agreed to.

The union seems reluctant to go this route because random drug testing is commonly used in other sensitive occupations and has stood up.

The Lingle administration filed a complaint with the Hawai'i Labor Relations Board and should defend the integrity of collective bargaining by pursuing means of voiding the contract and rescinding the pay raises.

At the very least, the governor should freeze negotiations for a new contract until the current contract is implemented.

In the year the teachers have whined about drug testing, the United Public Workers has willingly worked with the state to set up drug tests for its members to promote a drug-free workplace and set an example for the community.

If drug tests are OK for the school custodians and cafeteria workers UPW represents, what's so special about teachers?

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at http://volcanicash.honadvblogs.com.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. His columns are archived at www.volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.