Record breath-test teacher to quit classroom

The Auckland teacher charged with having one of the highest drink-drive levels on record - the equivalent of 28 glasses of wine - says she cannot face her students and will quit her job.

Joanna Winifred Wright, 47, plans to resign from teaching her Year 7 class at Bruce McLaren Intermediate in West Auckland this week, after being charged with driving with 1583 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath - almost four times the legal limit.

Experts say that would be the equivalent of drinking 28 glasses of wine. Police, doctors and alcohol watchdogs are amazed anyone would be conscious, let alone able to get behind the wheel, after drinking so much.

According to court documents, Ms Wright initially failed to stop for a police patrol in Ellerslie just after 11pm on Tuesday, March 28 - a school night. When she finally pulled over, her breath alcohol test result was nearly four times the limit of 400mcg per litre of breath.

She appeared in Auckland District Court on April 20, entered no plea, and is scheduled to reappear this Thursday.

Ms Wright told the Herald on Sunday yesterday she would not be able to face her pupils and their parents once her drink-driving charges became public.

"Of course I regret it. If the evidence is correct, I'm simply horrified at my own actions.

"All I'm doing now is trying to deal with the fact that I'm going to lose my job. It's all I've ever done."

Ms Wright, who is understood to have two previous drink-drive convictions, said she was a good teacher.

She refused to comment on what she was drinking the night she was pulled over, or why she got behind the wheel of her car in the first place.

"I guess you can say the reason I was out that night was because of a family issue. There was a situation with my son. I just snapped."

She said she was seeking help for her "social issue".

David Crickmer, principal of Bruce McLaren Intermediate, said Ms Wright had called him yesterday and asked to take a week off work.

"I had no idea, it was the first I'd heard of it. It was quite a bombshell."

However, he was unsure if he would ask Ms Wright to resign.

He said she was a great teacher, and had a strong rapport with her Year Seven pupils and their parents.

"I'm more concerned at what people are like as teachers. What teachers do in their spare time is their business," Mr Crickmer said. "What they do in the classroom is mine."

Dr Mike MacAvoy, head of the Alcohol Advisory Council, said most people with a breath alcohol reading of 1583mcg would be unconscious or deeply asleep.

Although many factors determined how drunk someone could get, he estimated a 1583mcg reading was the equivalent of drinking four bottles of wine (28 glasses) or three-quarters of a bottle of spirits.

"Anyone who can drink that much, and be awake to get behind the wheel, is amazing," Dr MacAvoy said.

The reading also astonished Inspector Heather Wells, Auckland's road policing manager and a police officer for 27 years.

She could not remember a breath test that high for decades.

"These days, it's incredibly high and totally unacceptable. I doubt whether I'd be able to walk, let alone drive, if I'd had that much to drink."

Ms Wells said she felt no sympathy for drink-drivers.

"We get people who get caught who say 'Life isn't worth living, I'm going to lose my job'.

"But there is no excuse in this day and age with all the publicity and advertising."

Other senior police officers could remember breath tests as high as 1100 or 1200mcg, but not 1583mcg.

Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca Williams said driving was impaired even at the 400mcg limit, and that women became drunk more easily than men.

Biologically, women are more susceptible to alcohol than men according to Alcohol Healthwatch research.

They have more body fat, and less body water, which affects how the body metabolises alcohol.

The enzyme dehydrogenase, which breaks down alcohol in the stomach, is also less active in women than men.

Body size, fatigue, individual tolerance, how quickly the alcohol is consumed and whether you drink on an empty stomach are other factors which can affect how drunk people can get.

Professor Paul Rishworth, dean of Auckland University's law school and an education law specialist, said there was no law to ban teachers who had been convicted of drink-driving.

"It comes up from time to time. But people have different views about whether drink-driving makes someone unfit to teach."

Nearly 27,000 drunk drivers were caught last year, the highest number since nearly 31,000 were convicted in 1991. Statistics from the Transport Ministry show alcohol is a factor in nearly a third of road deaths, killing 135 people on New Zealand roads in 2004 at a social cost of $870 million.