On Friday, an elementary teacher who had been late for work over 100 times reasoned out that his breakfast was the culprit of his chronic tardiness because it made him lose track of the time.
The name of the teacher is Arnold Anderson. He has been teaching at New Jersey's Roosevelt Elementary School and has been late 111 times in the course of two years. He was not fired.
"I have a bad habit of eating breakfast in the morning, and I lost track of time," according to 15-year teacher Arnold Anderson, as told to The Associated Press.
In the AP, it said that Roosevelt Elementary had previously tried to fire Anderson for the bad punctuality record. However, he must have a lucky charm on hand as a New Jersey arbitrator had given him a suspension as punishment.
According to the arbitrator, Anderson had a record of 46 days of tardiness in this school year alone, while last year, he had been late 65 times.
The arbitrator in New Jersey filed the decision on August 19, saying that he rejected Roosevelt Elementary School in New Brunswick's attempt to fire Anderson from a $90,000-a-year job because the instructor is entitled to progressive discipline. However, the arbitrator did not pass of criticizing Anderson for his excuse, which was that his quality teaching service far outweighs his punctuality problem. Anderson added that "at the most," he was only late to school one to two minutes but that he had never been late for class.
According to Food Beast, Anderson will be suspended until January 1 with no pay. This would perhaps provide him with much-needed time to work out on eating breakfast more quickly.
"I have to cut out eating breakfast at home," Anderson said on Friday.
The superintendent's office of Roosevelt Elementary School was also reached for comment Friday.
The arbitrator discovered that the institution was not able to provide Anderson with due process when they did not supply a formal notice of inefficiency or a chance of improving his errors for 90 days before terminating him, reported The Toronto Sun.
On Friday, Republican Gov. Chris Christie also made a tweet addressing the case. She said: "Think I'm too tough on the teachers union? This is what we're dealing with in NJ."
According to Anderson, he was "very upset" by the suspension, but also said that it was better than losing his job altogether.
He added that he "will be early" when he returns to work on January next year.
