{
  "id": "2004-january-february-lovesick-teachers",
  "slug": "2004-january-february-lovesick-teachers",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2004-january-february-lovesick-teachers.html",
  "year": 2004,
  "month": "January • February",
  "monthNum": 1,
  "headline": "Lovesick teachers?",
  "kicker": "",
  "author_name": "",
  "author_title": "producer",
  "affiliation": "WEWS-Cleveland",
  "summary": "A Cleveland television station analyzed public school teacher sick day records and discovered an unusual pattern of absences on Valentine's Day, revealing potential abuse of sick leave policies and associated costs to taxpayers.",
  "keywords": [
    "teachers",
    "absences",
    "investigation"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Education",
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Data & Databases"
  ],
  "technologies": [],
  "full_text": "Does something about Valentine's Day make public school teachers ill? Sounds a bit unromantic, but producer Ron Regan of WEWS-Cleveland – with the help of IRE and NICAR Database Library analysts – found that Feb. 14 was a day many public school teachers called in sick.\n\nBased on the analysis of how public school teachers used their sick days, WEWS reported on patterns of abuse in its local school system and estimated the costs to taxpayers in the Cleveland area.\n\nCheck out the full story at www.newsnet5.com/news/2656080/detail.html.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1999-september-sick-slackers",
      "score": 0.245
    },
    {
      "slug": "2004-january-february-bits-and-bytes",
      "score": 0.211
    },
    {
      "slug": "2004-march-first-venture-principals-cash-in-on-sick-pay",
      "score": 0.166
    },
    {
      "slug": "2001-julyaugust-non-traditional-licenses",
      "score": 0.155
    },
    {
      "slug": "2001-julyaugust-a-new-wrinkle",
      "score": 0.145
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2004-january-february-lovesick-teachers.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2004-january-february-lovesick-teachers.json"
}