Teachers can receive gifts up to certain values

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

And until recently in the state of Louisiana, it kept teachers away, too.

That’s because the traditional school gift – along with any other type of gift – actually placed Louisiana teachers under an ethics violation. That is, unless the teacher consumed the entirety of the gift in front of the gift giver.

“It’s stupid,” said State Rep. John Berthelot (R-Gonzales).

On the recommendation of the Louisiana Ethics Board, Berthelot submitted a bill to Louisiana lawmakers in the 2014 legislative session, which would allow public servants to receive gifts that did not exceed $25 individually and $75 aggregately over the course of a calendar year.

“I was proud to do it, because it made all the sense in the world to me,” Berthelot said. “ … Teachers do an unbelievable job in the classroom, and if we can reward them with a small gift, I think that’s in line.”

In downtown Baton Rouge, the bill was amended to only include teachers, and it passed through the Senate 86-3 and through the House 28-6.

“I didn’t have really any opposition once I explained to the Legislature what this was doing was really making it more practical cause nobody’s going to give a kid a grade over an apple or brownies or anything like that, and if a group of parents want to get together and pool their money and give a teacher a gift certificate there’s nothing wrong with that,” the lawmaker said. “ … I’m glad that we were able to pass that to help the teachers, because they deserve it.”

The Terrebonne Parish School Board, too, has approved a measure acknowledging it will abide by the new state law.

“We’re just paralleling state law with our policy,” Superintendent Philip Martin said. “It’s a law, and we follow the laws.”

Martin added that in 40 years as an educator he has never had an issue with teachers receiving gifts, but he is happy to follow state law.

The ethics board submitted the suggestion to Berthelot – member of the House and Governmental Affairs Committee, which typically handles ethics laws – after receiving questions regarding what teachers can and cannot receive from the St. Tammany Public School District in February 2013.

“The board had rendered an opinion prior to this basically following the law at the time with respect to prohibition,” Louisiana Board of Ethics Administrator Kathleen Allen said.

However, the opinion caused the ethics board to realize something needed to be different, according to Berthelot.

“They did not want to have to rule against teachers in the future. They have no problem with student or student parents giving gifts up to $25 and up to three times a year,” he said.

The ethics board’s opinion was based on the laws brought fourth by Jindal’s much-publicized Louisiana ethics reform of 2008. It was modified to have different rules for teachers when he signed Act 172 into law May 22. Before his ethics reform laws, there was no prohibition of teachers receiving gifts from students.

Despite the small change in regard to teacher gifts, Berthelot said Louisiana has the strongest ethics laws in America since Jindal’s ethics reform laws.

“I’ve been elected since 1976. I was on the city council then I was mayor [of Gonzales] and something needed to be done with ethics in Louisiana, because we were the worst. But we never stopped halfway. We went all the way to the top,” he said.