Zero Tolerance Victim Gets Grudging Vindication
A teacher accused of having unauthorized prescription drugs in her car at school has won dismissal of the charges. She had been charged with having Xanax without a prescription. She produced proof that the car had been in the shop for a month, that other people had driven it, and that she was drug-free. In the face of all of that evidence, the District Attorney said only that he didn't think he could prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. Hardly a gracious statement to an innocent teacher who probably will be paying off her attorney fees for quite a while.
The saga started in February, when the school superintendent of the Houston school district sent campus police with drug-sniffing dogs to search the cars in all employee parking lots. The searches netted quite a few teachers, including Ms. Herrick. It would be interesting to see empirical evidence of how many of the teachers charged in that sweep eventually were convicted. I suspect that the damage to employee morale and lost efficiency from suspending teachers over unfounded charges significantly outweighed any benefit.
At the time of the searched, a school district spokesman said that the district was treating the employees the same as it would treat students charged with the same offenses. Exactly -- maybe the district should rethink its entire policy of having zero tolerance become zero judgment.
Hat tip: Overlawyered
