Lexington School District Two says a substitute teacher accused of being drunk in school was not a district employee. 
 
 The Irmo woman was arrested and accused of being drunk at Brookland-Cayce High School Friday, according to the Lexington County Sheriff's Department. 
 
 Judith Elizabeth Richards-Gartee, 52, was arrested Friday after an administrator at the school called a resource officer about her being intoxicated. 
 
 On Monday, the school district issued this statement: 
 
 On Friday, March 10, 2017, it was reported to the Administration of Brookland-Cayce School that a substitute teacher was behaving erratically and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. This substitute is not an employee of the District, but works for Kelly Services. Kelly contracts with the District to provide substitute teachers. 
 
 The Administration responded immediately, removing the substitute from the classroom and sending her to the School Resource Officer. The District has been advised that law enforcement has filed criminal charges against the Kelly employee. 
 
 Richards-Gartee was later found in possession of an open container of alcohol. She was charged with disorderly conduct and released to the care of paramedics who took her to the hospital. 
 
 The sheriff's department says it will not be releasing any more information regarding this incident. 
 
 Copyright 2017 WIS. All rights reserved. ||||| LOS ANGELES >> A former South Hills High School student is suing a ceramics teacher and the Covina Valley Unified School District after the teacher allegedly “choked” and “berated” him in front of his peers during an incident last spring. 
 
 According to a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Tuesday, Scott Stragier, placed the plaintiff, Joseph Leyba Jr., in a chokehold “and started to choke Joseph to the point that he almost lost consciousness” during third-period ceramics and sculpture class on or about March 14. 
 
 “Defendant Stragier then pulled on Joseph’s right earring and almost pulled the earring out of his ear in front of all the students in the classroom,” the complaint reads. “Defendant Stragier then released Joseph from the chokehold and berated Joseph in front of the other students in the class by yelling: ‘What did I tell you about (expletive) around in my classroom, you haven’t done a (expletive) thing.’” 
 
 As a result, Leyba, 18, who has since graduated from the school, has suffered “physical injury and psychological injury,” his attorney John Lee said in an interview Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 Lee declined to expand on the nature of those injuries. The suit is seeking $5 million in damages. 
 
 Stragier could not be reached for comment. He has a valid teaching credential, according to state records. 
 
 CVUSD spokeswoman Michelle Van Der Linden declined to comment on the complaint, but she said Stragier has been a ceramics and fine arts teacher at South Hills since 1993 and has previously coached wrestling and football at the school, according to Van Der Linden. 
 
 The lawsuit comes amid a series of claims that other CVUSD employees allegedly engaged in sexual relationships with students. Over the weekend, South Hills teacher Melody Suzanne Lippert, 38, of Covina and Michelle Louise Ghirelli, 30, who was working on special assignment at the district office, were arrested on suspicion of engaging in sexual conduct with male students during two separate trips to San Clemente State Beach late last year. 
 
 Ten days prior to those arrests, West Covina police arrested South Hills High School part-time girls’ wrestling coach Anthony Vidales, 29, of Covina on suspicion of having sex with a female student on Jan. 7. 
 
 “As you can see from recent events, this school seems to have a pattern of hiring and not training and retaining unfit teachers,” said Lee, who added that the timing of the suit was unrelated to the recent arrests. 
 
 The 13-page complaint also mentions battery charges for which Stragier was found guilty in relation to the alleged incident, the complaint states. In September, Straiger plead no contest to a misdemeanor battery for that case, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. 
 
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 “The fact they let him go back to the school — it kind of shows what’s going on with that school district,” Lee said. 
 
 Van Der Linden said that Stragier was placed on leave “immediately” after the alleged incident. She added that he is teaching and the district does not intend to place him on leave because of this complaint. 
 
 “In the state of California anybody can sue anybody for anything, so just receiving a lawsuit wouldn’t necessarily place him on administrative leave,” she said.
– A substitute teacher was found throwing up at South Carolina's Brookland-Cayce High School, but a stomach bug wasn't to blame. Judith Richards-Gartee has been charged with disorderly conduct after allegedly drinking boxed wine in her classroom. Administrators say they found the 52-year-old vomiting and incapable of standing when they came to her classroom at 9:45am Friday, reports the State. She was removed via wheelchair, and a Lexington County deputy who was on the clock as the school resource officer says he found the boxed wine in her purse. Students reported that she was consuming it in class. WIS reports that in a statement Lexington School District 2 made clear that Richards-Gartee was not its employee, but had been hired by the company the district contracts with. (These students in Arizona can probably relate.)