Vehicle search upsets Peters teachers' union

By Terri T. Johnson,
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com

McMURRAY – When the Peters Township School District conducted a search of student vehicles in the high school parking lot on Dec. 9, employees’ vehicles were also inspected.
The search for drugs and other contraband yielded nothing, but it upset representatives of the teachers’ union.
Paul Sutherland, president of the Peters Township Federation of Teachers, addressed the school board Tuesday about what Sutherland called an illegal search.
In addition to police, trained dogs from several surrounding departments were involved. The search was not done in response to any incident.
At the time, Shelly Belcher, district spokeswoman, called the event a “proactive approach” to letting the students know illegal items are not acceptable in the schools.
During the search, the school was locked down.
Sutherland told the board he felt the search violated the constitutional right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. A union attorney has been notified, Sutherland told the board.
There was no response to Sutherland’s comments by any board member, Superintendent Dr. Nina Zetty or the board solicitor, Jack Cambest.
Sutherland said the search that involved not just teachers, but students and all district personnel parked in the lot, was “embarrassing and humiliating” to the teachers. He said teachers were asked to leave their classrooms to speak with police about the search.
That, Sutherland said, suggests illegal activity by the teachers and that students “finding fault” with a teacher has become “an intramural activity.”
Searching teachers’ vehicles now makes their jobs “much harder and unnecessarily so,” he remarked.
The union wants the district to apologize and to work to restore the teachers’ reputations.
Sutherland called the search “foolish” as teachers are well aware of the district’s policies regarding contraband, drugs, alcohol and tobacco.