California elementary teacher arrested after allegedly driving to school, teaching class drunk

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California elementary teacher arrested after allegedly driving to school, teaching class drunk
cbsnews.com

A second-grade teacher in Northern California has been arrested on allegations that she drove to work and was teaching class drunk.

The Sutter County Sheriff's Office says, Monday morning, they got a report that a staff member at Nuestro Elementary School in Live Oak appeared to be under the influence.

Deputies soon showed up at the school and encountered 57-year-old Wendy Munson, who was in the middle of teaching her second-grade class. Deputies noted signs and symptoms of Munson-Swartz being under the influence.

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Alcoholism is terrible to watch play out, especially if it's happening to a loved one who won't give it up. It's a shame it's so normalized in society.

She got fired for it. From both of her jobs. I'd hardly call that normalizing alcoholism.

I was generalizing. Advertising for alcohol is everywhere, just like tobacco was years ago. Just like tobacco they figured out ways to skirt the laws and still get the message across. Sponsorships from companies pushing their 0% alcohol beers, super bowl beer commercials that become water cooler conversation in offices, etc.

I'm a recovered alcoholic. I never noticed how ubiquitous it was when I was lost in the sauce, but I sure do now.

So many social events are centered around alcohol, too.

Congratulations on your continued recovery!

There seems to be a weird protective culture centered around alcohol use. There's all these levels of people who declare themselves as "social drinkers" or "drinking to celebrate an occasion" as if it somehow recuses someone from responsibility for their actions. Then there are those who drink daily (sometimes quite heavily) but because they aren't "drunk" it's supposed to be ignored.

It can be quite frustrating at times.

I don't pretend to have all the answers or understand everyone's thoughts, but it seems like it's all too common for people to drink first and think second.

Oh yeah. I've abused other substances too, and I'd consider alcohol a hard drug. There's a lot of misguided bro science surrounding alcohol too, and I think people tend to be in denial of how great a psychological and physiological impact it can have on a person over time. I accept that other people drink, but damn I'm so thankful that part of me is in the past. Have multiple people in my life who are drinking themselves to death. My brother for example used to be my best friend, but he's basically a zombie now. I hope he recovers, but it's absolutely something someone has to choose for themselves.

Thank you for your kind words.

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You think some TV commercials and a magazine ad are causing people to become alcoholics? 😆

Yes. If a major corporation sets a major marketing campaign to increase profits. It will spend the resource needed to achieve that goal. There are literally million of employees working right in some capacity now on exactly creating ways on how to make sure their alcohol sells.

I didn't say that.

I think people who are already struggling will find it more difficult to right the ship when the habit or addiction that's dragging them down is constantly dangling in front of their face. When you feel like everyone else must be doing the same thing it's much harder to realize that you may have a problem or where the problems are coming from.

Years ago everyone chewed tobacco or smoked. Some people believed that smoking was good for them. Plenty of people watched their wallets empty and their teeth fall out of their heads, but it was normal because everyone else was doing it too right? With everyone in films firing up, cool characters like Joe Camel showing you how badass you could be as a smoker, and a commercial or billboard telling you about the newest smokes every few minutes, it's a lot harder to think that maybe if you didn't smoke as much your coughing would stop.

The advertising may not be the root cause, but normalizing something that also has to be age restricted should be a red flag in the first place.

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I think they were more referring to how its portrayed in media/advirtising

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