Blind teacher loses job after rinsing his mouth with Listerine

[KamaAina]

Not The Onion!!

http://nypost.com/2015/11/15/blind-teacher-loses-job-after-rinsing-his-mouth-with-listerine/

Legendary blind gym teacher Steven Sloan may have lost his job over Listerine.

Sloan, 60, a popular coach hailed as a role model for overcoming his handicap, was yanked from PS 102 in Harlem after a parent setting up for a party last year complained she smelled booze on his breath. He claims it was the alcohol-based mouthwash.

His colleagues are outraged. Several recalled his obsession with cleanliness and hygiene, saying he rinsed religiously with Listerine....

Sloan contends any odor on his breath likely came from swishing with Original Listerine, which has 26.9 percent alcohol, after a spicy lunch.

[randys1]

1. The person who got him fired? Pictures?

[KamaAina]

2. Nope, just of him.

[randys1]

3. I wonder if the person has the complexion for the protection for the collection

[KamaAina]

4. The school is in Harlem

While the light-complected people of whom you speak are gentrifying Harlem, I doubt that very many of them are sending their precious snowflakes to PS 102.

[linuxman]

13. I'd bet my account they were black.

This took place in Harlem. White hipsters are becoming drawn to the area, but few have kids. I doubt the'd sen them to a Harlem public school either.

Dollars to donuts the parent was black.

I'm willing to be proved wrong, though.

[npk]

23. There's no need to wonder, just trust your assumptions.

They will never steer you wrong.

[Heeeeers Johnny]

5. Once again, being overly sensitive trumps common sense.

The city Department of Education charged Sloan with drinking on the job and sexual harassment because he had asked a group of moms that day, “Anybody want to go on a blind date?” Sloan said he used the joke to put people at ease about his disability. But in August, Sloan settled with the DOE by agreeing to retire.

To top it off, the guy genuinely takes an active interest in the students...

Blind Teacher Helps East Harlem’s P.S. 102 Outrun Competition

Twenty-four laps around the P.S. 102 gym in East Harlem add up to a mile. Physical education teacher Steven Sloan makes his fifth graders run 25 laps.

“You tell ‘em to jog,” Sloan says, “and they just want to run, fast. They like to run all out.”

His regimen, which he admits is tough, has led P.S. 102 to the top ranks of New York Road Runners’ Mighty Milers youth program. Its 300-plus students together ran more than 50,000 miles last year.

“Here at P.S. 102, the kids really very quickly build up to where they are running a mile and sometimes more than a mile a day,” says Cliff Sperber, executive director of youth programs at New York Road Runners, at a recent event honoring the students. “It’s very impressive.”

In class, Sloan, 55, calls his students by pet names, like “Puff Cheeks,” “Muhammad Ali,” “Vanilla Smoothie” and “Hot Salsa.” He has his stars, the natural athletes who have come to love running under his tutelage. But just as important to him are the ones who come along when it’s not so easy.

http://archives.jrn.columbia.edu/2010-2011/theuptowner.org/2010/11/22/5565/index.html

[hifiguy]

6. Idiocracy is here.

Right here. Today. Every day.

[gollygee]

7. Are we completely unable to assume the best rather than the worst of people?

Our society is not very kind.

[hunter]

8. I remember teachers who always reeked of both cigarettes and alcohol.

They usually didn't live long enough to retire, which was easy on the pension fund.

And honestly, they were not the worst teachers I suffered.

[Chitown Kev]

9. It all depends

on other things in the personnel file (which probably can't be disclosed)

I noticed that the story said that Mr. Sloan was not known for drinking "on the job"

Was he known, at any point, for drinking off of the job. Was it ever noticed by students and /or others. Had he ever been disciplined for it? Was there a zero tolerance policy if he had been discipline for, say, coming to school drunk and hungover?

Thing is...if Mr. Sloan had been disciplined in that way, I doubt that he would be using Listerine.

[gollygee]

12. Yeah but I wonder about this paragraph in the article:

After smelling alcohol on his breath, the parent dug through a trash basket in Sloan’s office — which was near a doorway to the street — and pulled out a Styrofoam cup she claimed Sloan’s assistant was carrying. The “brown liquid” in the cup smelled of liquor. She never saw Sloan holding it but accused him of drinking.


So she never saw him holding this cup - she saw someone else holding it - and yet that sounds to be a big part of her accusation.

[Chitown Kev]

14. Yeah, this has to be about more...a lot more

than a cup of Listerine.

[KamaAina]

10. Didn't that parent watch "Bad Teacher"?

[Tipperary]

11. Listerine and regular old booze smell very different.

Sadly, I once had an alcoholic friend who frequently used that excuse.

[Major Nikon]

16. The effects last very differently as well

When you drink booze alcohol evaporates through your lungs, so the alcohol smell on your breath lasts for hours. If you take a breathalyzer test immediately following rinsing with an alcohol based mouthwash you will peg the meter. 5 minutes later it will be 0. I've seen this demonstrated by a professional tester.

Yes, the mouthwash excuse is common among alcoholics. This guy isn't the first to use it.

[EL34x4]

18. I've also know alcoholics who drank Listerine.

When nothing else was available, that 27% alcohol content will do the trick.

[Major Nikon]

21. You gotta be a pretty hardcore alcoholic to drink Listerine

It tastes like all hell and is more expensive than cheap vodka.

[Chitown Kev]

22. Kitty Dukakis drank straight up rubbing alcohol, IIRC

when you gotta getit, you gotta get it, I know.

Nowadays I use hydrogen peroxide to gargle and I tend to use baking soda toothpaste...I take no chances!

[EL34x4]

24. Alcoholics can do some strange things.

Sometimes the liquor stores are closed. Or you're too drunk to drive to go get more. Or maybe your family dumped all your booze down the drain. Or you did. Or you fall off the wagon and Listerine is the only thing around. Or that big bottle of Listerine is your "emergency reserve" hooch.

I've also heard of alcoholics drinking aftershave. As long is it contains ethyl alcohol, it'll get you drunk and probably not kill you or make you go blind. Might make you sick but that'll pass.

They had to pull hand sanitizer from prisons because inmates were drinking it.

[TexasBushwhacker]

26. I saw a guy drinking it outside a Family Dollar

I smelled it first. And he was drinking the original stuff, not the mint flavored.

[LiberalElite]

15. My dentist told me not to use Listerine

because of the alcohol content. THEN I understood why it always made my eyes water...

[Major Nikon]

19. Alcohol is a very effective antiseptic

However, it also tends to dry you out by rinsing away the lining inside your mouth which can encourage bacterial growth. That's why some dentists recommend against it.

[LiberalElite]

20. Oh. I thought it was

because alcohol can cause oral cancer. (He didn't elaborate and I didn't ask.)

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. oh no.

[oberliner]

25. The NY Post is a right wing tabloid

They regularly run articles which try to present the NYC Public School districts (and other public schools) in as negative a light as possible. Often their stories are thinly sourced and not particularly well reported. This story follows the pattern of countless other NY Post stories.

I would point out that the DOE insists Sloan did in fact consume alcohol on school property and made inappropriate statements to a parent while he was supposed to be teaching class.

I would like a non-NY Post source (or a source that does not link back to the same NY Post story) to pursue this.

[KamaAina]

28. As an ex-NYCer, I knoiw that quite well

Republican Stepdad reads it daily. He only gets the Times for its superior crossword puzzle!

I was astonished that the Murdoch cat box liner had presented a person with a disability in a positive light. I hadn't figured on the public school-bashing angle. (It was the News, not the Post, that coined the term "educrats". )

[Generic Brad]

27. This story does not pass the sniff test

People don't lose jobs over a mere suspicion. There has to be more to the story than what is being reported.

[KamaAina]

29. So to speak.

[smirkymonkey]

30. Still, shouldn't they have offered to get him some help first?

It seems a little extreme just to fire him outright.

[Major Nikon]

31. Most likely they did

I'm pretty sure there's more to this story that isn't being told.