LAW: REVERSED PRIORITY

Asecond chance is a nice concept, but an arbitrator carried it too far when
he ordered the reinstatement of a Florida teacher who reported to work with
50 times the amount of cocaine in his system that would register a positive
result.

The Pensacola middle school teacher was fired. The arbitrator, however,
ruled this spring that the penalty was too harsh for the offense,
particularly since the teacher hadn't been in trouble before and many of
his relatives also were teachers. He ordered the man returned to the
classroom or to some other school job with full salary.

Surprisingly, a circuit judge upheld that ruling.

It's laudable to want to rehabilitate the errant teacher. But if you can
show up at school stoned out of your mind, what exactly are valid grounds
for termination in Pensacola?

Teachers are role models, and people who use cocaine often have erratic
behavior, which con-ceivably could endanger children.

The man's irritation and nervousness, in fact, brought about the drug test.

Also, the rulings force a double standard on the school system, one in
which those in authority can get away with more than those who are not.

As the superintendent com-plained to the Pensacola News Journal, "We are
expelling kids for taking aspirin or No-Doz. Now we are talking about
someone taking cocaine, and that's OK."

It should be the other way around -- zero tolerance on cocaine, not aspirin.