Teacher of the year taken away on drug charges

[eridani]

What would our unemployment rate be if we didn't pay people to do so much useless destructive shit?


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6237623.html

The search at Roberts was part of a larger HISD crackdown. A month before, after a string of teachers were arrested on drug charges,

Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced plans to have a dog sniff every teacher parking lot in the district — never mind whether anyone thought the school had a drug problem.

And no one thought Roberts Elementary had a drug problem — or, for that matter, any real problem at all. Roberts, near the Texas Medical Center, is a sweet, safe-feeling place, full of kids’ art and parent volunteers.

Roberts is on Texas Monthly’s list of the best public schools in the state and in 2008 won six Gold Performance Awards from the Texas Education Agency. An International Baccalaureate school, it teaches its kids to think in complex ways. It’s a school that works.

But on that Tuesday morning, just before lunch, Roberts suddenly had a problem. After two false alarms, the dog pointed to the last car anyone at Roberts would have expected: the car belonging to beloved art teacher Mindy Herrick.

Teacher of the year

[noiretextatique]

1. two Xanax?!?! i have a whole bottle on me now

this is ridiculous.

[tularetom]

4. Yeah but you aren't in effin Texas

[noiretextatique]

7. true...i am in california and i am not a teacher

and this is still effin ridiculous.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Yay Drug War! Yay! Go Team!

Woo-Hoo! :eyes:

[Uncle Joe]

31. Yes, they did nail those two terrorist loving, freedom hating, Xanax, but Mindy Herrick

became collateral damage in the process, such is the cost of war.

[LynzM]

3. This is ridiculous.

She had 2 Xanax. Not a bag of coke, not some heroin, not even pot, for pete's sakes (which, that's a whole 'nother rant.) They apparently were not even hers!

What a waste of resources, what destruction of a positive teaching environment, and for what? Ugh. :banghead:

[FLyellowdog]

5. Prescription drug?

If someone has a prescription for a controlled substance and is supposed to take it during school hours (like every 6 hours, i.e.), would the zero tolerance policy apply?

[noiretextatique]

26. absolutely not

i take Xanax for anxiety and i work in a juvenile residential facility. i have it in my purse every day.

[FLyellowdog]

27. Thank goodness for that. Hopefully common sense prevails everywhere.

[dethl]

29. I work for a government contractor and carry my Xanax on me at all times.

I also carry my Effexor on me as well. Being anxious is a bitch.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

6. This just proves it: drug use is not a barrier to superior performance.

The same with the Phelps pot-smoking thing.

[dysfunctional press]

10. she didn't have any xanax in her system, so no- it doesn't.

[TimesSquareCowboy]

12. I'm not saying she was high at school, just saying that using drugs

does not necessarily mean poor performance in a job or otherwise.

[dysfunctional press]

15. you said that it "proves" it...how so, if she didn't have drugs in her system?

:shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

8. how does a drug dog pick up on two xanax in a plastic bag from outside a closed car?

that's one talented pooch.

[Dr.Phool]

13. My dog can sniff out a biscuit in a plastic bag, in a purse, across the park.

[EFerrari]

23. My dog can sniff wheat being threshed two states away.

She's FAT, too. lol

[bobbolink]

9. And all she did was "get help"!!

How's this for a very fine "can't win"??

[marew]

11. Tax dollars at work!

Someone has much too much time on their hands. Unfrigging believable. That poor woman.

[LeftHandPath]

14. And the probable cause to search her vehicle?

Oh, thats right, we destroyed the Constitution in the last administration.

So much for ones 'Liberty'.

2-10 years in prison for the teacher of the year, and Bernie Madoff, who stole $50 billion, gets to live a $7 million penthouse apartment.

Gotta love Amurkia.

[Gabi Hayes]

16. from her shool....catch it before it's gone:

http://www.robertselementary.org/specialists/art.html

I work in a grade school, and this makes me very sad, especially after seeing this link.

from the page:

"Great News!

Eight Roberts students have had their work chosen to tour across America. The exhibit, Design Your Dreams, opened in Baltimore, May, 2000, and will close in September, 2003. Children from all over the nation between the ages of 4 and 12 created poetry, paintings, and sculptures of their dreams.

Roberts is proud to have such an outstanding art program. "

[arcadian]

19. I must be on drugs. All I see are technicolor cows,

At the link. :rofl:

[FiveGoodMen]

17. Ah, the Land of the Free

I'm against the death penalty, but I'd make an exception for supporters of the Drug War.

[get the red out]

18. "Drugs" are the new "witchcraft"

Catch a pill on someone and ruin their lives.

[tridim]

20. Limbaugh is apparently exempt.

[Poll_Blind]

21. I hope at least a few read the full article- incredible story, what a tragedy. K&R

PB

[FiveGoodMen]

22. EVERYTHING about the Drug War is a tragedy. There's no excuse that we haven't ended it.

[Poll_Blind]

24. For the most part, I agree.

PB

[arcadian]

25. Superintendent of Schools Abelardo Saavedra, Ph.D. contact info

http://www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f6d4ced1cc65e010VgnVCM10000028147fa6RCRD

Dr. Abelardo Saavedra, Superintendent of Schools
Houston Independent School District
4400 West 18th Street
Houston, Texas 77092-8501

Telephone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-Mail: [e-mail]

[ThomCat]

28. What are the ods that the cops got bored with finding nothing

and planted that baggie. It's not like cops don't plant evidence, or railroad innocent people.

[jazzjunkysue]

30. It doesn't say if she had an RX. But with no record, how can they sustain this?

"Her lawyer, Kent Schaffer, expects the grand jury to no-bill her. A drug screen showed that she had no Xanax in her system, he says. She passed a lie-detector test showing that she knows nothing about the pills. And she’s asked for the baggie to be fingerprinted, to prove that she never touched it.

But for now, she’s stuck in paid administrative leave, a busywork limbo. Her students miss her fiercely. And parents worry that, betrayed by the school district she served so well and so long, she may never return."

[eridani]

32. Want to save your tax dollars?

END this stupid shit!