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Last updated on Thursday, November 30, 2017
(CROWN POINT) - A high school teacher in northwestern Indiana has been charged with cocaine possession after students allegedly saw her with drugs in her classroom.
24-year-old Samantha Cox was formally charged Monday with the felony along with a misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Lake County court records. Cox was arrested Wednesday and later posted a $945 bond.
The Post-Tribune reported officers were called to Lake Central High School in St. John last week after students told their principal they saw the English teacher with drugs. One student had video of "what appeared to be a teacher 'snorting' a line of an illegal substance," according to a probable cause affidavit.
Investigators said Cox told police she'd purchased $160 worth of cocaine before arriving at the school. Cox told police she brought the drugs inside the school because she was unable to ingest them before school started, according to the affidavit.
"Ms. Cox advised she normally purchases her (drugs) after school but was feeling sick and needed to get some," court records state.
Police later found "a clear tightly twisted bag with multiple small rolled up pieces of tin foil" in the teacher's desk, according to the affidavit. They also found items in her vehicle, including a glass pipe in the glove box, empty pieces of tin foil and torn open plastic baggies, court records show.
Lake Central Superintendent Larry Veracco said principals took "swift and forceful action." He declined to say whether Cox was still employed, saying it was part of an ongoing investigation.
Cox was hired by Lake Central in August 2016, district records show.
"We are concerned and saddened by the recent incident, and we have recognized that it is a systemic issue in our country," School Board President Janice Malchow said in an email to the Associated Press.
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