Caldwell School District officials in southwest Idaho say a teacher's multiple DUIs that include a felony conviction do not affect his ability to do his job.
Fifty-three-year-old Jon Kelpin teaches U.S. History at Caldwell High School, where he's taught for 26 years.
Kelpin has three DUI's in the last three years. His driver's license has been suspended for three years and he's in the custody of Canyon County's work-release program, which allows him to leave during the day to teach.
School District spokeswoman Jennifer Swindell says the district determined Kelpin is not endangering children and so chose to keep him employed at the district.
KTVB.com
Just had a teacher let go at K's school for a second offense of a much lessor nature. Since it happened at the beginning of Christmas break, parents had time to talk to their kids and when they got back to school, there must have been more discussions when the official school policy was, the teacher had decided to resign and move closer to family. The whole arrest had already been in the paper and on the news and it would have been hard to miss even with the hustle and bustle of the holidays.
The Caldwell School District response is one we are all quite use to. Politics, government, movie starts. When someone expresses bad/unacceptable behavior - we talk about this other side of the same person who appears to be not only normal but most times - somewhat of a hero. This bad behavior won't get in the way of the good behavior. Like we turn off parts of ourselves with magical switches.
I don't care who you are. If you have been caught 3 times in 3 years for the same offense - you have done it 60 times without being caught. In the case of drinking, do you really think his good behavior is good enough to teach a class? Lets' be less selfish, he goes from jail to school and then back to jail. How much rehab is he getting? Wouldn't full time rehab be a better choice?
We can't section off parts of ourselves and go on. We are the whole enchilada and if one part is bad, time to start over. Time to make a new one. A better one. Don't cut around the bad parts and continue to serve it. The folks in Caldwell are doing a disservice to the teacher and the students. They need to get the teacher out of the class room and give the kids a new start. Anything less is just criminal...
