PENSACOLA SCHOOL EMPLOYEE ORDERED REINSTATED AFTER DRUG FIRING

PENSACOLA -- An independent arbitrator has order the reinstatement of a
fired teacher whose drug test showed he had come to work with a high level
of cocaine in his system.

The penalty against Robert K. Sites III, 37, who tested 50 times above the
detectible level, was too severe for an employee who had never received
less than a satisfactory evaluation, arbitrator Tom Young wrote in his
decision.

Escambia County School Superintendent Jim Paul said Thursday that he may
ask the School Board to appeal Young's ruling. He said students can be
expelled for taking unauthorized but legal drugs.

"Now we are talking about someone taking cocaine, and that's OK," Paul
said. "This is one of the most bizarre things I have had to deal with."

The Escambia Education Association filed a grievance after the board fired
Sites from Brentwood Middle School on Sept. 18.

Bob Husbands, the union's executive director, defended the arbitrator's
decision, saying it did not specify that Sites, a technology coordinator,
return to a classroom. He also said there is no "zero tolerance" policy for
employees.

When Sites came to work on Aug. 10, before students had returned for the
fall semester, other teachers noticed the pupils of his eyes were enlarged
and that he spoke in a rambling and unfocused manner, Young wrote. That
prompted the drug test.