Cops: Teacher Drunk On Box Wine In Class

MARCH 14--A South Carolina substitute teacher is facing a disorderly conduct charge after allegedly getting drunk in class on box wine she had stashed in her bag, police report.

Cops were dispatched Friday morning to the Brookland-Cayce High School in response to a 911 call about an “intoxicated individual.”

Upon arriving at the school around 9:45, a cop was told by an administrator that, “a substitute teacher was intoxicated while in class." Administrators "went to the classroom and the teacher was throwing up and could not stand up,” according to a Lexington County Sheriff’s Office report.

Investigators allege that Judith Richards-Gartee, 52, “had a box of wine in her bag that was opened” and that students reported she was “consuming the wine during class.”

Richards-Gartee was removed from the classroom in a wheelchair and brought to the nursing office at the school, located in the city of Cayce, a few miles outside Columbia, the state’s capital. Richards-Gartee was subsequently transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Seen above, Richards-Gartee was cited for disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.  

In a statement released yesterday, the local school district said that Richards-Gartee works for an employment agency that provides substitute teachers. (2 pages)