It sounded like a nightmare for any administrator: A substitute teacher brings alcohol to school in a coffee mug, becomes intoxicated in front of her students, and has to be removed from the classroom.
Apparently, that’s what happened at an elementary school in New Jersey earlier this month. A fourth-grade sub -- a certified teacher who had worked in the district for over a year -- became visibly intoxicated, fell out of her chair, and threw books as students summoned the principal.
According to Manalapan-Englishtown School Board President Anthony Manisero in the Asbury Park Press (www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712120400), the school’s administrators secured the classroom and had the librarian take over as they called in school counselors and the police, who arrested the 54-year-old teacher. The superintendent immediately wrote a letter to parents of students in that class.
Seems like a reasonable way to handle such a crisis, right? Not if you’d only read the first half of an article in the Asbury Park Press: “Parents of Pine Brook School students said they’re upset at the district’s lack of communication following a teacher’s arrest for drunkenness during class.”
The article quotes just one parent, whose students who were not in the class: “Why did I have to hear it through the rumor mill? … It was just totally handled wrong.”
So apparently the school officials were totally wrong because they did not immediately set the parental rumor mill straight? Fortunately, the district did not take the “no comment” route:
“I feel the people who needed to know found out the information they needed in a very quick and reasonable amount of time… just because some other parent wants to know what went on, I don’t think that’s our role,” said Superintendent John Marciante Jr.
It’s very unfortunate that this happened, but a bad situation was made even worse by a shrill parent and a newspaper that missed the point. While drunken teachers are (hopefully) a rare occurrence, this article at least showed the importance for school officials to explain actions and policies to the community and the media.
Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor