Middle School Teacher Arrested For Letting Kids Smoke Weed In Her House

A middle school teacher has been arrested for letting her students smoke marijuana in her home. Gawker reports that Christine Cantrell,40, teaches at Teasley Middle School, which is located in Canton, Georgia. Most reports aren’t sharing what grade the woman teaches, but few have revealed that she’s a sixth grade social studies teacher — meaning that the students exposed to her were between the ages of 11 and 13.

Cantrell faces charges of marijuana possession (less than one ounce) along with contributing to the delinquency of minors. Interestingly enough, in Georgia it’s a misdemeanor to keep a “disorderly house,” which is apparently another charge the middle school teacher faces. Earlier it was reported by CBS News 46 that both Cantrell and her husband were arrested for allowing a 17-year-old teen to smoke in their home with a friend. However, police have acknowledged that they have no idea how many kids could have smoked marijuana in their home. Police have noted that the home smelled of marijuana at the time of the arrest, and that the children in the home smelled of it as well. Their own children were removed from the home and put in the custody of other family members.

Both Christine Cantrell and her husband Jeff have been released from jail on $3,000.00 bond as the investigation continues into her alleged contribution to the delinquency of minors. All of the charges the couple face are misdemeanors, but the school district is also doing its own investigation, which may end in her permanently losing her job as a middle school teacher. In fact Commander Phil Price of the Cherokee County Narcotics Squad acknowledged that losing her job may be the hardest blow.

“Obviously the greater impact would be the adverse impact it may have on her employment. She deals with a lot of people at an impressionable age. Whatever her beliefs are about the use of marijuana, it is still against the law in Georgia.”

The Cherokee County School District is handling their end of the situation by removing her from the classroom until further notice. If she is ever back in a classroom, the concerned parents of the community may have a problem with it, since this whole situation came to a head after concerned parents reported the suspicious activity to police in the first place. To make matters worse for the middle school teacher, her own students confirmed to police that some of them had smoked marijuana in her presence. Perhaps that should go as a warning to any other teachers who may want to be more friend than authority figure to their students in the future.

[Photo credit: CBS News 46 Atlanta]