This Teacher Blamed Breakfast for Being Late 111 Times

As we learned earlier this year, Britons' breakfast habits are harried, if not peculiar. About 2.6 million people in the UK eat breakfast while driving, while another 5 percent of the population chows down on their eggs and sausage on the toilet. Very disturbing, friends. Very disturbing indeed.

But this same stressful lack of time for proper morning dining extends over the pond, as well, to New Jersey. That's where elementary school teacher Arnold Anderson found himself being suspended for being late a whopping 111 times in the past two school years … and he blames his neverending tardiness on his need to squeeze in a decent breakfast.

According to the Associated Press, school officials even threatened to fire Anderson from his $90,00-a-year staff position because of his constant lateness. But he stood by his argument: he was eating breakfast every morning, and breakfast should be a leisurely experience.

Anderson told AP on Friday that in order to be on time every day, he would have to skip breakfast entirely: "I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time." Anderson has been teaching at Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick for 15 years.

He also says that his proficiency as a teacher should overshadow his inability to show up to school on time. Unfortunately, his supervisors didn't agree, and tried to have him fired. But an arbitrator defended Anderson, saying that he was "entitled to progressive discipline" rather than outright loss of his job. The district never provided Anderson with a warning about his behavior or a notice that he had 90 days to correct the issue. As a result, he will keep his position at Roosevelt but will be suspended without pay until January 1 of next year. The arbitrator, however, did not vouch for his claim that the quality of his teaching "outweighs his tardiness."

Of course this has rendered him "very upset," but he vows to be early every day when he resumes his position in January. Anderson says that he was only "one to two minutes late to school at the most" in the reported 111 incidents.

Republican Governor Chris Christie was not amused by Anderson's lax attitude toward punctuality, tweeting, "Think I'm too tough on the teacher's union? This is what we're dealing with in NJ."

But it could be worse, Gov. Christie. We could have our teachers eating waffles in the bathroom and toast while they drive. Sure, it would save time, but it might be a little more shameful than being a minute and a half late to class.

And someone might want to tell Anderson that skipping breakfast isn't so bad for you.