An Indiana teacher has been arrested after students found methamphetamine hidden in her hair scrunchie during a “Family Fun Night” event on September 12.
The eighth-grade teacher at Helfrich Park STEM Academy, Sarah Jayne Duncan, was arrested and booked into the Vanderburgh County Jail on Wednesday evening.
According to a report from Newsweek, “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,” the report continued.
The students brought the scrunchie and vial to another teacher, who alerted school officials.
The Evansville Police were called to the school and conducted a field test on the substance, which was positive for methamphetamine.
Duncan was subsequently brought to the police station for a drug test.
According to the police, Duncan’s first drug test was inconclusive due to the urine being too cold. An officer then “observed an unauthorized collection container fall from Duncan’s shorts.” The test results were discarded due to her attempt to alter them.
Newsweek reports, “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.”
Duncan has been charged with one count of possession of methamphetamine and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
The teacher has since been fired by the school district.
