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

https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/wendy-munson-swartz-live-oak-nuestro-elementary-school-allegedly-drunk-teacher-arrest/

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.

18 comments

FlyingSquid

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I was in the nurse's office on my awesome but seriously alcoholic drama teacher showed up to school drunk and they brought her in there to deal with her. That was her last day. She was also the city clerk and they fired her from that too. She died soon afterward, sadly.

FrostyTrichs

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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.

FlyingSquid

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

FrostyTrichs

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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.

LinkOpensChest_wav

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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.

FrostyTrichs

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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.

LinkOpensChest_wav

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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.

spider

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Permanently Deleted

Outtatime

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

Lemmylaugh

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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.

FrostyTrichs

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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.

ACatNamedBunny

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

SatanicNotMessianic

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I think alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases that should be handled like disabilities by employers. Dismissal should be a last resort, preceded by insured disability treatments.

LufyCZ

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Unfortunately you are very often a liability when not sober.

Teachers would be setting a bad example for kids. Tradesmen could make fatal mistakes, fuck up your house, cut off their fingers, whatever. A nurse... think that's obviously.

On and on

Maybe office jobs could be more lenient though

SatanicNotMessianic

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I’m thinking about it being considered a medical condition. If for example a person were to acquire an injury that prevented them from working temporarily, they might be covered by short or long term disability insurance. I know that I pay extra into my LTDI coverage for 75% of my base salary in case I end up unable to work.

My point is twofold - the medical community has recognized addiction as a disease and not as a moral failing. We still struggle with that at the societal level but the science is pretty locked in.

The second part is that we allow alcohol manufacturers and distributors to externalize the costs associated with their products, in the same was we allowed tobacco manufacturers to dodge the effects of their products for so many decades. The Master Settlement Agreement helped finally break big tobacco and instituted a sea-change on the American cigarette industry. We should probably do the same thing with alcohol. We have to face the fact that the alcohol industry is externalizing the cost of alcohol abuse to the tax payers, rather than having to bear that burden out of their profits. They’re therefore driven to maximize alcohol consumption because for them, it’s pure profit with the victims of alcoholism and society itself picking up the bill.

ThePantser

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Simpsons did it first.

dan1101

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It's a lot to expect teachers to deal with all the student and administration crap while sober.

Psythik

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It's time to normalize teachers getting drunk and high at work.

Jakdracula

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She’s a real Munson.