A local district attorney’s office said Monday that an elementary school teacher in Northern California will not be charged with being drunk in the classroom.
Wendy Munson was arrested on October 2, 2023, for DUI and child abuse. She taught second grade at Nuestro Elementary School in Live Oak, California.
Deputies from the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office were called to reports of a teacher who reportedly drove to work drunk. They said they saw her impaired while teaching.
Police say Munson was teaching children when she was confronted by them. A fellow worker at Nuestro Elementary School is said to have called them.
She was arrested after failing a test to see if she was sober.
But on Monday, the office of Sutter County District Attorney Jennifer Dupre said Munson would not be charged.
“After a lengthy and thorough investigation, the Sutter County District Attorney’s Office has determined that no charges will be filed against Wendy Munson, the second-grade teacher at Nuestro School who was arrested on October 2, 2023,” the DA’s office said on Facebook. “During the investigation, it could not be established that Munson was under the influence when she drove to the school, as opposed to drinking only after arriving there.”
Dupre’s office also said that the standards for child endangerment could not be met because there was no proof that the kids in Munson’s classroom were ever in a dangerous situation.
“The mere potential that a situation could arise is insufficient to meet the requirements under the law,” it said. “While the District Attorney’s Office agrees that it is highly inappropriate to teach while intoxicated, it is, unfortunately, not illegal.”
In October, Munson was arrested at the elementary school. In a letter to parents, Nuestro Elementary School District Superintendent Baljinder Dhillon said that she had been taken into custody after being led off campus.
News station FOX 11 in Los Angeles said that Dhillon told the parents that the kids did not see the arrest and that Munson’s second-grade students would have a long-term substitute.
Fox News Digital asked Dhillon for a statement on Munson’s job as a teacher, but he didn’t answer right away.
The DA’s office said that the fact that Munson’s charges were dropped does not change what Dhillon decides about her job.