‘It is not illegal to teach drunk’: Charges dropped against 2nd grade teacher accused of being intoxicated in class

givesomefucks@lemmy.world to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 335 points –
'Not illegal to teach drunk': 2nd grade teacher allegedly drunk in class won't be charged
lawandcrime.com

While the District Attorney’s Office agrees that it is highly inappropriate to teach while intoxicated, it is, unfortunately, not illegal.”

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Reminds me of one class I had in high school right after lunch. The teacher was occasionally late getting back to class from the bar.

I had a physics teacher who died of alcohol poisoning a couple years after I graduated.

He has the red nose of alcohol abuse and everything in class all the time. I thought that was bullshit but it isn’t!!!

My 9th grade homeroom teacher had a fifth of Jack in his drawer and frequently smelled of booze.

Real nice guy, though

Who the fuck calls the cops here? Is that just karen shit??

Fire the person or put them on a form of suspension, absolutely, but the fuck you think the cops gonna do?? It's insane the pigs even took her away instead of just escorting off property and sayin fuck off till you hear back from the school admin.

pigs being pigs I guess

Id say the arrest came as a response to the drink driving more than the being drunk at work. Sounds like she was smart enough to shut the fuck up and lawyer up.

She was drunk at work, her car was at work but unless you give them any more information than that the burden of proof is on them. If you admit that you hadnt had anything to drink since last night and literally anyone saw you driving to work BAM they have you. But "I want a lawyer" and say nothing else and they have to prove you didnt pound a water bottle of vodka in the carpark.

This is your friendly reminder to shut the fuck up when being questioned.

I should track down my 2nd grade teacher to buy her a drink, and maybe apologize.

Former teacher here - this would definitely be illegal where I worked. I'm pretty sure as a teacher you're essentially the legal guardian of all the students and this would be tantamount to endangerment. I know our teachers contract also forebode being drunk or under the influence of drugs while working.

Given the state of modern parenting, it's almost mandatory...

I read the title like "you can't fix stupid".

e.g. "you can't teach drunk"

Usually the misreads are funnier, but the original title is already pretty great. I think the intended meaning wins this time! Haha

Alcohol is a vice that adults are allowed to have.

If the teacher isn't driving, is conveying the information, and the kids are not getting hurt, how about fuck off?

I don't believe for a second that this teacher can convey information just as well sober as they can drunk. It might not be a crime, but it's unethical to mess with a child's one and only chance at getting an education like that.

Adults are allowed all sorts of vices. You can do drugs, participate in orgies, listen to the Beach Boys. But that doesn't mean you should do any of that at work. Especially if you work with children.

"Alright kids now for geography class we'll be learning about Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, Bahama, Keylargo, Mont-WAIT STOP"

"Take him away, boys."

You don't need to believe it, I'm sure a lot of teachers would do a whole ton better with a buzz. Be more fun, more engaging.

Your puritanical attitude is your own, and you need to stop forcing your own misconceptions on others.

In my experience (sober for two years, and a lot of talks with people in various stages of alcoholism to help with my own), while this maybe has some truth to it in lucky circumstances, the kind of people willing to have a buzz in that situation aren't the kind who stop at just a buzz

Are you sober because you got your mental health issues addressed and you no longer needed the vice?

Or are you sober because prohibitionists locked onto you, beat you down, punished you, sucked up all your money, broke you, and now you are "sober" like someone who lived in San Jacinto and was thrown into the pit, was broken, and is now a "devoted free thinking Scientologist"?

Jesse, what the fuck are you talking about?

So you caught a charge and got reprogrammed by a court system that focuses on the substances, not the crime.

Gotcha.

No I'm serious I don't know what you were going on about but it seemed like a lot of stuff in there. You're being wildly specific and tying together things in a way that I legitimately don't understand what you're saying and also you're just wrong in my case lol

I decided to get sober because I don't like how addiction feels like a loss of autonomy and I physically felt like shit all the time. I was able to get sober because I put a lot of work into surrounding myself with supportive people

Do you drink and argue on the Internet at all hours because you're caught in a self destructive spiral but still have too much of an ego to give up hating the world?

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Alcohol is not a vice that adults are usually allowed to have at work. Most jobs will fire you for being drunk at work.

We probably don't need a criminal law specifically for this though.

Yeah, whether or not they are fired, because it is certainly unprofessional behavior, it isnt criminal. Unless you count that they were somehow putting the children in direct danger, but that probably isn't the case for a geography or math teacher. Drunk woodshop teacher, maybe?

If a dangerous situation arose and the teacher failed to respond appropriately due to drunkenness, I'm sure that charge would be appropriate.

Oh yeah, reckless endangerment would definitely be appropriate, though if there were other teachers or staff reasonably close I could see it being contested.

Also, I absolutely do not condone being drunk at work as a teacher.

If a dangerous situation arose and a sober teacher failed to respond appropriately, no charge whatsoever though, right?

Prohibitionists need to get back in their lane.

I am drinking port as I type this.

A sober teacher who is negligent in some other way resulting in an unreasonable danger to the children in their care also commits a crime.

Once again, if the job is getting done, and noone is getting hurt, what is the problem?

She made it to work on time. Should have ubered though.

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