JMU Professor arrested for public intoxication 12/4/2010 JMU The Breeze; (see link: http://www.breezejmu.org/news/article_2025ae7e-00d3-11e0-94f7-0017a4a78c22.html)
According to the article in the JMU The Breeze newspaper a JUM professor was arrested for public intoxication while teaching a class at JMU. Professor Karen D. Evans was reported to have a legal history of alcohol violations.
According to online court records:
Evans was charged Sept. 9, 2009 with a first offense DWI. She was found guilty on Dec. 2, 2009 of a reduced charge of reckless driving and received a six-month suspended license, a $2,500 fine, an 180-day suspended sentence and court ordered Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program classes. Two months later on Feb. 2, Evans was arrested for DWI, felonious assault on a police officer and operating without a license. The felonious assault and operating without a license charges were dropped. Evans was found guilty on April 20 for DWI and failure to comply with VASAP. She received a one-year suspended license, a $250 fine and court ordered VASAP classes. In August, Evans was arrested again for non-compliance with a court-ordered VASAP and was ordered to appear in court on Nov. 16. Evans did not appear in court and received a failure to appear charge that same day. On Sept. 22, Evans was arrested for an alleged second DWI, operating under a suspended license and refusal of a breath test. Evans is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 15 for the Sept. 22 DWI charge, operating under a suspended license and the Dec. 1 charges of public intoxication and violation of pretrial release.
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I find this to be a sad and tragic story of the impact of alcohol on someones life. It makes me wonder again about the JMU negative alcohol culture and the need for students who violate alcohol laws to have consequences for that behavior. Professor Evans is an example of what can happen with continued alcohol problems over time. JMU has an opportunity to use this sad and tragic story as a catalyst for changing it's three strikes policy and to have suspension as a consequence for student alcohol violations. The sooner one experiences consequences the sooner behavior change is possible.
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Karen Evans obviously needs help in overcoming her illness and addiction. What she does not need are people who don't even know her passing judgment and criticizing her behavior. As a previous student of Karen's, I know she is an incredibly smart and inspirational woman and professor. I hope that the JMU community will choose to support Karen and help her recover, as they would for any other professor with a serious illness.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I can't even BEGIN to describe the positive impact that Karen has had in my life. She clearly lives with addiction at this time, but as a therapist myself...we all know there is a PERSON underneath it all. It's my hope that the university will support Karen in her recovery---she is an inspiration to every student she encounters, and this would be a tragic loss to her past,present and future students. While I believe sanctions should occur, I don't not feel termination is appropriate.
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