The Iowa kindergarten teacher who was arrested on Friday after police found her with beer at her class’s Valentine’s Day party had a blood-alcohol level almost double the legal limit for driving, court records indicate.
The teacher, Jennifer Lynn Rich, has been charged with public intoxication, reports The Des Moines Register.
Rich, 40, registered a 0.145 on a preliminary breathalyzer test administered by police. The legal limit for driving drunk in Iowa is .08 percent.
The teacher’s beer of choice in her kindergarten classroom was Busch Light, according to cops.
Busch Light is America’s seventh-best selling beer, according to St. Louis Business Journal. The highest-rated Busch Light reviewer at Beer Advocate describes the Anheuser-Busch brand as “like carbonated water with some cardboard and old rice.”
Police arrested Rich on a very unlucky Friday the 13th after a concerned parent called in a tip that the teacher may have been drinking beer in class. (RELATED: Cops Say Iowa Kindergarten Teacher Was Crushing Beers IN CLASS)
The scene of the arrest was East Elementary School in Ankeny, a suburb of Des Moines.
The unidentified parent called police after allegedly seeing a beer can in Rich’s classroom while helping out with the always-stressful class Valentine’s Day party.
When police arrived, they found a leather bag in Rich’s classroom containing four full cans of beer and two empty brewski cans.
The teacher told police she had consumed two beers during her lunch break.
Police administered the preliminary blood test after taking the kindergarten teacher into custody. The cops also said Rich had bloodshot eyes.
East Elementary principal Julianne Taylor said she contacted kindergarten parents during the weekend to explain the uncomfortable situation.
“We thoroughly investigate any report that raises a concern about the conduct of a staff member,” Taylor promised, according to Cedar Rapids CBS affiliate KGAN. “Our students are our first priority.”
Rich, who has taught with the Ankeny school district since 2001, tendered her resignation on Monday. The local school board accepted the resignation pretty much immediately.
Teachers aren’t supposed to drink during their workdays, observed Darcy Lane, a lawyer for the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners.
Such behavior violates the “code of professional conduct and ethics” for teachers, Lane told the Register.
A long-term substitute will teach Rich’s kindergarten class for the rest of the year.
Teachers show up drunk to work at America’s taxpayer-funded public schools with some frequency. In August, for example, a rural Oklahoma high school teacher allegedly showed up on her first day of work drunk and wearing no pants. (RELATED: Back To School: High School Teacher Shows Up On First Day Drunk, WITHOUT PANTS)
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