Former school teacher gets $75k settlement after showing up at school field trip drunk

A former elementary school teacher, Maria Caya, who passed out after showing up drunk to a bowling alley field trip for 4th graders, is going to get a $75,000 settlement from the Wisconsin city she sued.

Caya filed a $5.5 million lawsuit against the city of Janesville last year claiming police improperly released her blood alcohol tests to the public.

Caya claimed the city caused her stress and public embarrassment by releasing her blood alcohol levels.

The city council approved the settlement Monday night.

Investigators said her blood alcohol percentage was 0.27% on the day of the field trip in June 2013 which was way higher than the legal limit for driving in Wisconsin which is 0.08%.

A staff member took Caya to the hospital after finding they found her passed out in the bowling alley bathroom. There were 8 other adults at the field trip with the students.

The school district paid her $18,000 to resign in a separate agreement. District officials justified asking her to resign and giving her the $18,000 by saying that firing her would have resulted in legal costs exceeding that payout.

Jens Jorgensen, one of the seven Janesville City Council members who voted against the settlement said:

“I think that there’s a lot of things that happened that day and I would think that a judge and jury of her peers would be able to see through all of that and make the correct decision on that.”

Source: Fox 6