| Court: Teacher Arrested As Drug Suspect Should Lose Job POSTED: 7:14 pm EDT July 7, 2005 UPDATED: 12:01 pm EDT July 8, 2005 AP NEW YORK -- An appeals court in Manhattan has reversed a decision that would have let a teacher arrested on drug charges return to his position as administrator of an anti-substance abuse program at a Staten Island intermediate school. The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division decided 5-0 Thursday that returning Michael Campbell to his job running Intermediate School 72's "Safe Cities-Safe Streets" program would be "irrational" and would "defy common sense." Campbell, 41, a dean and eighth-grade teacher at I.S. 72, was arrested on felony drug charges in Brooklyn on April 14, 2002. The court said he had a bag of marijuana on his person while sitting in a car containing 10 aluminum bags of cocaine. Campbell, the court said, entered a plea deal in which he pleaded guilty to attempted criminal possession of a controlled substance in the fourth degree and agreed to participate in the Brooklyn Treatment Court Program for drug counseling. The plea deal provided that if Campbell successfully completed the program, he would have an opportunity to have his guilty plea vacated and the felony charge against him dismissed. Meanwhile, the school district brought disciplinary charges against him. In September 2004, State Supreme Court Justice Debra James denied the city's petition to vacate a hearing officer's finding that Campbell, having successfully completed the drug counseling program, should be reinstated. The appeals court disagreed. "We find the hearing officer's determination that Campbell was guilty of possessing the amount of drugs with which he was charged by the school district, but that he should 'be returned to his former or similar position in the district if he successfully completes (the drug program)' to be irrational and to defy common sense," the judges wrote. The appellate court reversed James' ruling, vacated the hearing officer's finding that Campbell should be reinstated, and ordered the case sent to a different hearing officer for imposition of a sanction consistent with the appeals court's decision. Claude Hersh, a lawyer for the New York State United Teachers Union and an associate of Campbell's lawyer, James R. Sandner, said they were reviewing the ruling and had no further comment. Kate O'Brien Ahlers, spokeswoman for the city Law Department, said, "We are pleased that the court agreed that this individual is unfit to work in our schools." Ahlers said Campbell's case was "another example of the need for reform in our disciplinary system -- we shouldn't have to spend years on litigation to remove an individual convicted of serious drug charges." http://www.wnbc.com/education/4696910/detail.html?rss=ny&psp=news |