RICHARDSON, Texas (AP) - A Dallas substitute middle school teacher has been arrested after police say he was too drunk in class to finish a sobriety test.

Thomas Brownlee was in a classroom with students at Parkhill Junior High School in far north Dallas yesterday with another staff member for about 20 minutes. A spokesman for the Richardson school district, in which Parkhill is located, says another teacher suspected Brownlee was drunk and told a campus police officer.

A Dallas police report states that Brownlee "had slurred speech, breath smelling of an alcoholic beverage and bloodshot eyes." The report says the officer stopped issuing a sobriety test out of concern for Brownlee's safety, and Brownlee was charged with public intoxication.

Brownlee told Dallas television station KDFW that he had two small glasses of wine at lunch but wasn't intoxicated. He said he loved his kids and wouldn't put them in jeopardy.

District spokesman Tim Clark says students were never alone with Brownlee.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-05-15-08 0038EDT