A
Texas high school teacher can use marijuana in Colorado, where it is
legal, and should not get into trouble for it in her home state, where
it is illegal, an administrative law judge ruled.
The
Texas judge made the recommendation in a case involving Maryam Roland,
who had taught science at Parkland High School in El Paso, Tex., and who
told school district officials that she had ingested an edible
marijuana product during Christmas break in Colorado in 2014-15.
The
ruling was sought by the Texas Education Agency, which asked the State
Office of Administrative Hearings to look into the case. The education
agency had sought to suspend Ms. Roland’s license for two years after
she tested positive for marijuana two years ago. She resigned in
February 2015, but a suspension would have affected any effort to return
to teaching, the documents showed.
But
William G. Newchurch, the administrative law judge at the
administrative hearings office, said that punishing Ms. Roland, 39,
would be like taking action against someone who had gambled at a casino
in Nevada and then returned to Texas, where gambling is illegal.
Judge
Newchurch said he did not find Ms. Roland “unworthy to instruct,” and
he recommended that the education agency, which oversees primary and
secondary public education in the state, take no action against her
teaching certificate.
“Possession of a usable quantity of marijuana is a criminal offense in Texas, but so is gambling,” the judge wrote. The judge’s decision was published by The Austin-American Statesman on Friday.
Lauren
Callahan, a spokeswoman for the education agency, said in a telephone
interview on Monday that the judge’s decision would not be the last step
in Ms. Roland’s case. She said the State Board for Educator Certification would also have a say in the matter. Sanctions can include suspension, reprimands or revocation of the teaching certificate.
“I
don’t think we have had this happen before,” Ms. Callahan said.
“Specifically with the marijuana use, we have not seen a case like this
before in terms of an educator’s certification and whether or not the
educator is sanctioned.”
Ms. Roland’s lawyer, Nicholas J. Enoch, declined to comment on Monday. He also said he had instructed his client not to comment.
The
case highlights some of the uncertainty that different state policies
on marijuana pose for employees who use it, whether they live in states
where it is legal or travel to states where it is not. Such cases are
becoming more prevalent, legal experts say.
In
the eight states where medical and recreational marijuana are legal,
and in the 29 states where only medical use is legal, laws allowing
private employers to set their own testing policies have not yet caught
up.
“They
have the right to drug tests, and employees are susceptible to being
fired,” said Keith Stroup, legal counsel for the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, an advocacy group.
One of the most closely watched cases
occurred in, of all places, Colorado in 2015, when the State Supreme
Court said that smoking marijuana off the job could still get an
employee fired. That case involved a customer service worker, Brandon
Coats, who used medical marijuana
to soothe pain from a car accident that left him partly paralyzed. He
was terminated from Dish Network in 2010 after testing positive for
marijuana in a random drug test.
In
Ms. Roland’s case, education authorities became aware of her marijuana
use after a “disgruntled” former employee made references to drugs in
emails mentioning Ms. Roland and other employees, according to the
documents published by The Statesman. It was not immediately clear
exactly what the references said.
Ms.
Roland, who has had no disciplinary action on her record, resigned in
2015, the newspaper reported. In an interview with district officials,
she said she had “occasionally” used marijuana, but not in more than a
month and never at school. She said she had consumed an edible marijuana
product in Colorado.
After
she agreed to be tested, marijuana traces were found in samples of her
hair, where evidence of it can remain for six months, the document
showed.
The
judge’s decision said the school district had no reasonable suspicion
that testing would uncover evidence of work-related misconduct.
It
was not immediately clear when, or if, Ms. Roland planned to return to
the school. Mr. Enoch, her lawyer, declined to answer questions about
whether she intended to renew her teaching certificate and try to teach
again.
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