Posted on 04/09/2017 12:15:28 PM PDT by MarvinStinson
WISN 12 News ✔ @WISN12News
Janesville council approves $75K settlement for former teacher who was drunk on school trip
http://bit.ly/2dGqoPf
7:01 PM - 25 Oct 2016
1 1 Retweet 1 1 like
It didn’t take long for the other teachers to realize that Maria Caya, one of the chaperons on a school field trip to a bowling alley, was seriously drunk.
As elementary-school students bowled in June 2013 in Janesville, Wis., Caya tried to order more drinks from the bar, city officials said.
At one point, Caya disappeared, worrying school officials. They found her in the bathroom, passed out.
Alarmed, a staff member drove Caya to the hospital, where doctors said her blood alcohol level was 0.27 — more than three times the legal limit to drive in Wisconsin.
She later told doctors she had been drinking since early that morning.
Predictably, Caya was not a schoolteacher for much longer: She resigned a month later, according to ABC-affiliate WKOW.
But in what some are calling a maddening twist, Janesville City Council has now voted to pay Caya $75,000.
Her blood alcohol level is at the heart of her case. Caya argued in a lawsuit that her BAC was private medical information that the police department never should have released. The number was mentioned in a police report, then written about by a local newspaper.
Officers routinely record BACs in criminal cases, such as DUI traffic stops. But Caya was never charged or convicted. Investigators were only able to get her BAC from the hospital.
The settlement, approved Monday, ends three years of legal wrangling following Caya’s resignation.
But it has drawn the ire of critics who say the city of almost 64,000 about 45 miles southwest of Madison is choosing legal expedience over taking on even a small amount of risk.
[Second-grade substitute teacher arrested after principal discovers she’s drunk in class]
Jens Jorgensen, the only council member who voted against the settlement, said the city should have gone to trial.
Jens Jorgensen, Janesville City Council Vice President. (Photo courtesy of Jens Jorgensen.) Jens Jorgensen, Janesville City Council Vice President. (Courtesy of Jens Jorgensen.) “I have 100 percent confidence a jury would make the right decision,” Jorgensen told The Washington Post, adding that he’d spent a week talking to constituents about whether the city should fight in court. “Not bringing it to court is just giving her an easy $75,000.”
Caya couldn’t be reached for comment. Her attorney, Christopher Stawski, could not be reached; a woman who answered the phone at Stawski’s law firm said he was out of the office and had no comment.
Caya, who had taught at Washington Elementary School in the Janesville school district, filed the lawsuit in Rock County Circuit Court in August 2014, more than a year after she resigned.
The suit makes no mention of her being drunk on the day of the trip to the bowling alley.
It says she “became ill” during the field trip and was taken to the emergency room.
The doctors and nurses who treated Caya “conducted various diagnostic tests and provided counseling,” according to the suit.
They also called police “to report suspected child neglect.”
Doctors and nurses spoke with a police officer, who filed the report that included her BAC.
A local newspaper reporter found the report and wrote an article, according to the suit, and the story of a drunk teacher supervising students spread quickly.
“After the Janesville Gazette published the initial article on June 8, 2013, its story regarding Caya became national and international news,” the suit says. The report of child neglect was “reported throughout the United States in virtually every form of media including newspaper, internet, television, social media and talk radio.”
But Caya’s lawsuit said the hospital acted “without legal authority and without any factual basis to suspect that any child participating in the field trip was neglected or harmed in any way.”
[Drunk mother forces 9-year-old daughter to drive truck with infant inside, police say]
In a statement, the school district told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “student health or safety was not compromised, due to eight other district employees present on the field trip.”
Caya was never charged with a crime.
Local Headlines newsletter Daily headlines about the Washington region. Sign up Her lawsuit a year after the incident sought $5.5 million in damages — a figure that worried city officials and their insurance company, Jorgensen said.
“If the City does not approve this proposed settlement that is recommended by our insurance carriers, then the City would be liable for all damages that the Court or jury could eventually award to the Plaintiff,” the city staff’s recommendation to the council said.
But Jorgensen worried that Janesville’s conservative choice in Caya’s case could make people more likely to sue the city in the future, knowing it will be an easy payday.
Potential litigants believe “if you do this, there’s a chance that you would continue to do this in the future,” he said. “Someone else can file a lawsuit whenever they slip on the sidewalk.”
Had screwdrivers for breakfast did he? I know the type. All too well. If this teacher was that bad, then others on staff at the school had to know.
They turned a blind eye for one of their own.
Hell, if the school board thought they were staving off a lawsuit by paying off this teacher, they opened themselves up for another one by the parents.
Assuming of course that the parents actually give a damn.
It appears that none of the students were harmed.
She was not charged.
Here medical records are none of the public’s business.
“But Caya was never charged or convicted. Investigators were only able to get her BAC from the hospital.”
That was the core of her case, and it would have evaporated had she been charged, as she should have. My guess is that Mr. Shyster waited for the statute of limitations to expire before pursuing her suit.
End of story. Insurance is covering it. Had the City insisted on going to trial, the insurance company would be off the hook and the City responsible for any award. I imagine the the taxpayers would be screaming from the other side that the City should have settled.
Someone comes across an unconscious person in the bathroom of a public facility.
What to do? Why, call 911 of course. The dispatcher asks what the problem is. The person calling doesn’t know. Only that an unconscious person is laying on the floor of a public restroom at the bowling alley.
911 does what 911 does in unknown situations; they dispatch EMTs AND police.
EMTs do their thing, and the police do theirs. They talk to people, they ask questions. They find out who this person is and ascertain that she’s a teacher/chaperone on a school field trip for public school whatever. They write reports. They follow up with the hospital. Was it a mugging. A crime of passion, what?
Nope, the word comes down that the patients BAC was almost three times over the limit.
They didn’t disclose if she was diabetic, or had cancer, are anything else. Just the BAC of a public employee on the public time watching minors.
That of course also goes into the report.
Last time I checked; police reports were publicly accessible. Whether charges were filed or not.
States do differ on the scope of accessibility, but generally speaking, one would think that public employees on the clock, getting taxpayer money, don’t get much slack. Nor should they.
And if you think they should be given cover, then you’re not part of the solution for what ails our government; you’re part of the problem.
I can’t believe she wants to settle for only 75k, she could easily parlay this in to a few Hundred Thousand Dollars
Sue for Wrongful Termination (Forced to Resign)
Sue the Hospital for Privacy Violations
Sue the City for Privacy Violations.
When I got a DUI in 1980, a guy in my alcohol school class was a Truck Driver for Rocketdyne, he transported Rocket Fuel to Edwards. He got caught in the Littlerock Bar by his Supervisor, big rig out front. They Fired Him and he got a DUI. The supervisor called the Sheriff and the Sheriff pulled him over after he left the Bar
His Union Sued Rocketdyne and got him his JOB BACK with 1 1/2 Years Back Pay, because by 1980 Alcoholism was designated as a DISEASE and the ADA Law got him his money and Job Back.
She can do the Same.
Really! I've had to substitute teach these very classes (PE).
Suffice it to say, I never drank nor did my fellows.
>> "The morel of the story:"
Wow. We get a lot more for morel's up here.
“And if you think they should be given cover, then you’re not part of the solution for what ails our government; you’re part of the problem.”
I did not write the HIPPA regulations.
Your medical information is private.
I wonder what the back story is.
She is no kid. Appears to be over 50. Is married and has moved a bit.
I know an alcoholic who could tolerate enormous levels of alcohol, but was one of the most competent men I have ever known. It started catching up with him about that age.
Moral. Thanx teach.
Public, falling down drunk intoxication, in a public restroom is not private.
You want to do it in the privacy of your own home on you own time? Fine! Knock yourself out. That’s private.
It does not seem the teacher denied being drunk.
Her argument was based on her right to keep her medical records private and not given to the media.
She should have thought of that before taking a position of public trust - and money.
Or is it your belief that public employees can do what ever the hell they want on the taxpayers time. Even when they’re entrusted with the well being of the public’s children? And said employers have absolutely no right to know what said employee did!?
Are you frick’n kidding me?
I’m done with you. You are part of the problem.
Amen to that.
The public school system should be dismantled.
She was a public employee and she was fired.
Her being fired is a completely seperate issue from the police giving her private medical records to the media.
One does not lose their HIPPA protections because they are public employees.
An educational field trip to a bowling alley? WTF!!! Something is wrong...
I don’t think public drunkenness is a crime in Wisconsin. More like a civic duty.
Nor is the issue that "kids were not endangered", nor was she arrested. (But she SHOULD have been).
Ugh, how was she supposed to get home?
Maybe a bus took her to the bowling alley, but was she drunk driving to the school?
Was she allowed to drive home from the hospital?
BOTH of these issues are very serious.
Public safety, let alone the kids safety are the main issues.
YES, there are HIPAA laws out there, and for good reason.
However, IMO the safety of the kids and the public should trump that in this case.
This stupid lady, and her shyster lawyer should have been grateful she wasn't charged in the first place.
Asking for cash later is a disgrace.
I imagine that if this souse drove home and killed someone that 75K would be the *least* of the school system's worries.
I'd throw this out in a New York Minute if I was a judge, and tell the woman to get help before it is too late.
it says her BAC was mentioned in a police report. Police reports can be obtained by request so it’s not truly private information.
If some one told the police her BAC and should not have, then there may be the issue, otherwise I think the teacher is entitled to nothing but to be fired for her choice to drink and be inadequately prepared and ready to perform her job that day.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.