Denver Public Schools Investigates their Gardeners

Denver Urban Gardens - a 25 year old nonprofit organization works directly with Denver Public Schools (DPS) to lease over 100 plots along the Colorado Front Range, including 20 public schools in Denver.

Gardeners participating in these programs grow veggies and flowers in fenced in plots of ground on public school land. The gardeners are being asked to undergo a criminal background check if they wish to continue gardening.

DUG coordinator, Jessica Romer sent an email to all gardeners last week saying that "being a gardener on school property is a privilege," and that gardeners are guests and must comply with DPS policy.

"My reaction is disbelief and anger," said Kellie Papish, who with her husband, gardens at Steele Elementary School, "community gardeners are a threat to children? Where did we go so wrong that if you potentially have contact with a child you have to have a background check?"

The nearly $16,000 cost of the checks will be footed by DPS.

Read more...

Random Drug Tests Result in 15 Resignations

The City of Mission, Texas has one of the strictest drug testing policies among the Rio Grande Valley cities. They drug test every employee working in “safety-sensitive” positions at least once a year. They show zero tolerance if they uncover illicit drug use.

“The testing is to make sure you have a clean slate of employees that are working at 100%,” Julio Cerda, City Manager said, “I need to make sure we have zero tolerance of any drug whatsoever, including alcohol.”

As many as 15 city employees, all from the same department of about 150 have resigned after failing a mandatory drug screen. Mary Norberto Salinas confirmed the number, which is about 10% of the workforce.

The importance of a good drug testing program is obvious to Mission. Those whose jobs require the use of heavy or dangerous equipment or who drive on duty are a risk if impaired. Not only to themselves, but to any person around them.

Some employees have voiced concern over the testing for alcohol saying that if someone the substance might be lingering in their system but they may not be impaired. Cerda adamantly backs up the program. A person would have to be drinking all night or while at work for alcohol to show up positive in a drug test, and that compromises public safety.

Read more...