An Indiana teacher was arrested this week as police say she brought methamphetamine to a "Family Fun Night" event at a school after kids found the drug hidden in her hair scrunchie.
Sarah Jayne Duncan was arrested on Wednesday and booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail. According to a probable cause affidavit, the formerly listed eighth grade teacher at Helfrich Park STEM Academy was charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
The incident took place on September 12 at the Helfrich Park STEM Academy where the school was hosting a "Family Fun Night" for students. Duncan attended the event, along with her daughter who is a student at the school, where she allegedly took a picture with two students in a photo booth. Both students later stated that Duncan let her hair down for the photo leaving behind a blueish colored velvet-type scrunchie with a white zipper.
According to the affidavit, the students noticed the scrunchie was heavier than a typical one and proceeded to open the zipper pouch where they found a glass vial that contained a white powder substance along with a cut straw and more white powder.
As the two students believed the substance to be drugs they brought the scrunchie to another teacher who notified the principal and vice principal.
In direct response, the police were called to the school where a field test of the white powder was conducted and tested positive for methamphetamine. Following the events of that night the investigation continued and Duncan was brought in for a drug test by officers with the Evansville Police Department.
Newsweek has reached out to the Evansville Police Department for comment.
However, in her first two attempts, police said neither urine sample "produced enough nor reached the temperature for testing."
Furthermore, the affidavit states while conducting the third test an officer "observed an unauthorized collection container fall from Duncan's shorts." As a result, the test was terminated and documented as a failure for the attempt to alter the test.
When asked about her failed urine samples, police said Duncan claimed that she didn't know why her first two samples were unusably cold. The teacher added that she was "not aware of the pouch/container in her shorts until after she was providing her second sample" or how it got into her shorts.
According to the affidavit, janitors noted that during the event Duncan was "frantically searching for some sort of hair tie." However in an interview with police, Duncan stated that she did remove a scrunchie from her hair for a photograph, but claimed it was a different scrunchie, one without a zipper pocket.
The affidavit also stated that Duncan claimed the hair tie she was looking for actually belonged to her daughter, but she later found it in the car.
As a result of her arrest, Duncan was fired from the school. She was released on $1,000 cash bond and is scheduled to make an appearance in court on September 26.
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Natalie Venegas is a Weekend Reporter at Newsweek based in New York. Her focus is reporting on education, social justice ... Read more
