By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org
    
BAY CITY, Mich. – There are serious penalties for drunk driving, but not drunk teaching?
 
For the past 15 years, Michigan’s Bay City school district had a clause in the teachers’ contract that provided generous amounts of leeway to union members who show up to work drunk or under the influence of illegal drugs, reports Michigan Capitol Confidential.
 
For instance, Bay City educators had to be found “hepped-up on goofballs” on three separate occasions before the district could legally fire them, while tipsy teachers got five strikes before they were shown the door.
 
The most stringent punishments were reserved for teachers found selling drugs on school grounds. They were to be given a 3-day suspension without pay and ordered to go through mandatory counseling sessions. Repeat offenders would be fired, reports the news service.
 
Every night must’ve seemed like a Saturday night for some Bay City teachers … but no longer.
 
The union’s drunk teaching provision was declared unenforceable after Michigan lawmakers passed teacher tenure reform in 2011.
 
“However, the union contract states that if (the new law) is struck down, the policy goes back in effect for teachers,” Capitol Confidential writes.
 
For now, the drunk/stoned teaching provision only remains in effect for Bay City Education Association members who are not subject to the teacher tenure reform, a list that includes librarians, guidance counselors, school nurses and the like.
 
That doesn’t make us feel much better, considering those people deal directly with students.
 
Bay City Superintendent Doug Newcombe said the district never had any incidents involving buzzed or pill-popping teachers, so the policy was never needed. Newcombe added that the provision isn’t likely to be included in the new teachers’ contract that’s currently being negotiated with the union.   
 
“From my point of view, that practice has already ended,” he said. “We are not going to apply that language.”
 
Glad to hear it. However, Bay City taxpayers certainly can’t be happy to hear that such a policy was ever included in a teachers’ union contract. But considering that Michigan’s government schools are essentially controlled by the teacher unions, this kind of Big Labor nonsense isn’t particularly surprising.