{"id":309240,"date":"2026-10-18T10:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/309240\/"},"modified":"2026-10-18T10:28:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T10:28:38","slug":"pennsylvania-first-grade-teacher-barricaded-in-school-bathroom-after-midday-booze-run-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/309240\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania first-grade teacher barricaded in school bathroom after midday booze run: police"},"content":{"rendered":"

An alleged drunk Pennsylvania grade-school teacher went on a wild booze run, crashed her car and then locked herself in a school bathroom, according to police.<\/p>\n

Katharine Viviano, 50, was discovered on Oct. 8 slurring her speech, glassy-eyed and reeking of alcohol inside the restroom at Pleasant Valley Elementary School in McMurray, WPXI-TV reported<\/a>, citing cops. <\/p>\n

Investigators said surveillance footage caught the first-grade educator leave the school around 11 a.m. to hit up Fine Wine & Good Spirits, according to WTAE<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"KatharineKatharine Viviano, a first-grade teacher at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, is seen in an August 2022 Facebook photo. Pleasant Valley Elementary School<\/p>\n

When she returned, Viviano allegedly backed into a parked car in the school lot and staggered back inside.<\/p>\n

Once inside the classroom, she locked herself in the bathroom and refused to come out until responding officers coaxed her out. <\/p>\n

She then allegedly confessed she had been drinking vodka earlier that day, according to police. <\/p>\n

Her students had to be taken out of the classroom while staff and law enforcement dealt with the teacher, who was unable to walk.<\/p>\n

Viviano refused a breathalyzer test, according to CBS<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Peters Township School District confirmed in a statement to WTAE<\/a> that a staffer was slapped with a public drunkenness charge, noting administrators initially believed Viviano was suffering a medical emergency.<\/p>\n

\"KatharineKatharine Viviano, a first-grade teacher at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, is seen dressed for Halloween in an October 2022 Facebook photo. Pleasant Valley Elementary School<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Peters Township Police Department conducted an investigation into the incident and, as a result, charges have been filed against the teacher for public drunkenness,\u201d the said the district in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand that this information will be concerning to families, but please know that the safety and well-being of our students remains our highest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur focus remains on supporting the students impacted by this incident and ensuring a safe, stable, and positive learning environment for the remainder of the school year.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is unclear if the teacher was placed on leave.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alleged drunk Pennsylvania grade-school teacher went on a wild booze run, crashed her car and then locked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31887,37825,53763,28,30,29,302],"class_list":["post-309240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-drunk","tag-drunk-driving","tag-elementary-schools","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}