Court Opinion

ID: 9564037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:53:31.769945+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:18:11.645561
License: Public Domain

NEELY, Chief Justice,
dissenting:
The majority today fails to find a rational nexus between a teacher’s drug use and his ability to perform his occupational duties. Because I believe this construes the occupational duties of a public school teacher far too narrowly, I dissent.
As I pointed out in my dissent to Golden v. Board of Education, 169 W.Va. 63, 285 S.E.2d 665 (1981), school attendance is compulsory in West Virginia — all children between the ages of seven and sixteen must be under the supervision of county boards of education irrespective of whether they are enrolled in public schools, private schools, or privately tutored. W. Va. Code 18-8-1 [1983]. Since the vast majority of parents in this state cannot afford private instruction for their children, they are required to dispatch their children on a daily basis to the local public school.
For approximately seven hours a day, five days a week — nearly half of a child’s waking existence — the children of this State are a captive audience of the teachers hired by local boards of education. During the impressionable school-age years, teachers are not merely instructors in sciences and letters. They are authority figures, role models, behavioral examples, surrogate parents. After a fashion, teachers stand in loco parentis. Children learn much more from their teachers than the quadratic equation and the proper spelling of “dirndl” — they learn important values and morals. One of the most important values children learn from their teachers is respect for the law. If the state may require parents to relinquish their children to the influence of public school teachers on a daily basis, then surely it is reasonable for parents to demand that public school teachers adhere to standards of conduct consonant with the moral standards of the community, especially when such conduct is required by law.
Federal, state and local governments spend millions of dollars each year teaching school-age children about the dangers of using illegal drugs. The legislature has determined that marijuana use is dangerous and ought to be prohibited by law. Accordingly, possession of marijuana is a crime in this State. W.Va. Code 60A-1-101 [1983], 60A-2-204(d)(13) [1983], 60A-4-401(c) [1983]. Moreover, it is a crime that many members of the community in which appellant teaches view as one of moral turpitude. The parents of Fayette County have, through their elected representatives on the board of education, determined that they do not wish to maintain appellant in a position of authority and influence with *706respect to their children. Yet the majority has determined that parents in Fayette County must have their children involuntarily subjected to the influence of an authority figure and role model who advocates, at least by example, the use of illegal drugs.
Teaching is not like driving rivets. It is not merely the rote, mechanical conveyance of factual information from one mind to another. It is the shaping of young minds, the cultivation of a precious resource. A teacher is the bailee of a parent’s most valued possession — his child. As such the teacher bears responsibilities far greater than those borne by most government employees. Almost any conduct of a teacher that advocates by example the commission of crime bears a rational nexus to his occupational duties; and conduct that advocates by example the use of illegal drugs certainly bears such a nexus.
I am authorized to say that Justice BROTHERTON joins me in this dissent.