Common sense wins a round

Michael Campbell was employed as the administrator of 'an anti-substance abuse program' at Intermediate School 72 in Staten Island, NY, when he was arrested in April 2002 for having 'a bag of marijuana on his person [and] sitting in a car containing 10 aluminum bags of cocaine.' While Campbell arranged a plea deal with prosecutors, agreeing to complete a drug-counseling program, the school district moved to terminate his employment. But termination proceedings were stopped when a hearing officer found that Campbell's completion of the counseling program entitled him to be reinstated.

Now, more than three years after Campbell was arrested, the state Supreme Court's Appellate Division has overruled the hearing officer's decision. Returning Campbell to his position would 'be irrational' and 'defy common sense,' the judges wrote. Said a spokesman for the city Law Department, '[W]e shouldn't have to spend years on litigation to remove an individual convicted of serious drug charges.'