Two teens face multiple charges for what they viewed as a gag - which a Jefferson High math teacher spotted before swallowing.
By SARAH SCHWEITZER
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 21, 1999
TAMPA -- For two teens, police say, it started as a gag in math class: What would happen if their teacher unknowingly drank an iced tea topped off with a tiny piece of paper soaked in LSD?
The pair never got an answer.
The Jefferson High School teacher, Daniel Ladd, noticed the paper in his drink April 19.
He fished it out and told a school resource officer, who tracked down the culprits.
This week, police arrested the two 17-year-olds, whose names are being withheld by the Times because they are juveniles, and charged them with delivery of LSD, conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and culpable negligence for exposing another to injury.
Cpl. Daniel Hernandez, the school resource officer, said the two teens confessed to contaminating the drink, although one teen said she didn't know the piece of paper was soaked in LSD when she placed it in the iced tea.
But Hernandez said the other teen, who supplied the drug, told him they had joked about what effect the drug would have on their math teacher.
"It started as a practical joke: What would it be like to see the teacher tripping?" Hernandez recalled the teens telling him.
Hernandez said the teens dropped the red-bordered tab of paper in a plastic foam cup that Ladd, 34, had placed on a filing cabinet at the beginning of class April 19.
Students frequently open the filing cabinet during class to retrieve papers, Hernandez said.
After class, Ladd retrieved his drink and noticed the piece of paper. He removed it and placed it in a plastic bag.
On April 21, Ladd approached Hernandez with the evidence.
Hernandez, a school resource officer for six years, began questioning students and after several hours identified the two teens.
When he interviewed them, he said, the pair confessed.
Arrests had to wait while the paper was analyzed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
When the results came back positive for LSD, one teen was arrested Wednesday and another Thursday.
Hernandez said the two teens are generally good students and have no known criminal records.
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