Melissa Martin, a 'permanent substitute teacher' employed by the Barre Unified Union School District and working at Barre Town Middle & Elementary School, is accused of arriving at class 'while under the influence of drugs.'
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Notice of the ‘disoriented’ teacher led to police and local EMS being called to Barre Town Middle & Elementary School around 10:49 a.m Barre Town Police Department said in an online statement.
‘The incident was reported to school staff after a student noticed Martin’s unusual behavior,’ a police spokesperson said in the statement. ‘Martin had admitted to school administration that she had cocaine in her jacket pocket, which was located in the classroom she had been teaching in.’
Prior to police being called, the educator had been observed ‘nodding off’ in class before suddenly leaving the classroom before returning shortly after ‘discombobulated.’
Shortly after school officials removed Martin from the classroom, with the classroom empty when police entered.
‘Barre Town K9 Lakota was brought in, and she ultimately alerted to the presence of narcotics in both a jacket, as well as a backpack belonging to Martin,’ police said. ‘A subsequent search of the jacket revealed a white substance which later yielded a presumptive positive result for cocaine.’
Police issued Martin a citation for possession of cocaine and reckless endangerment.
The Unconventional Lifestyle of a Cocaine Dealer. Part 2
The incident led to the school teacher being removed from the school.
‘The person is not at school now, I do have some personnel steps I need to take,’ Barre Unified Union School District Superintendent JoAn Canning told WPTZ.
But there was more.
Brittany, a mother whose 8th grade son was in Martin’s classroom, told the station, ‘He looked visibly shaken and upset and I asked what had happened today and he said that his substitute teacher was clearly on drugs and was acting crazy. Those were his exact words.’
It remained unclear what treatment, if any, the teacher would be undertaking to help her arrest her drug dependency.
