A middle school teacher in Indiana was arrested last week after she was allegedly caught with meth inside her scrunchie during a “Family Fun Night” event at her school.
Sarah Duncan, 35, allegedly took a picture during the event at Helfrich Park STEM Academy on Sept. 12 with two students, who noticed something unusual about her hair scrunchie afterward, according to an Evansville police officer’s probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox News.
The affidavit said that both of the juveniles who took photos with Duncan in the photo booth said she let her hair down for the pictures.
Afterward, they cleaned up the area and found a “ blueish-colored velvet-type scrunchie with a white zipper on the table.”
“They noticed the scrunchie was heavier than a typical scrunchie, they opened the zipper pouch and observed a glass vial that contained a white powder substance that the two believed to be drugs along with a cut straw with white powder,” the affidavit said.
Immediately after finding the substance, they notified another teacher, who told them to throw it in the trash. The teacher then grabbed the scrunchie and brought it to her classroom, where she called the school’s principal and assistant principal.
After the event, the affidavit said that Duncan was spotted by two janitors “frantically searching for some sort of hair tie.”
Police were able to confirm Duncan’s actions and that she was wearing a scrunchie during the night by the security camera footage. A field test conducted by officers for methamphetamine administered on the scrunchie also came back positive.
Days after the event, the school’s deputy chief of staff and Evansville Police Chief Tim Alford went with Duncan to a nearby clinic so she could be drug tested.
While being drug tested, her first two samples were reportedly too small as they failed to “reach the temperature for testing,” police shared.
While she was making her third attempt at the drug test, officers “observed an unauthorized collection container” fall out of her clothing.
“Duncan stated that she does not know how or when the pouch/container got into her shorts that day,” the affidavit said. “Duncan stated that there may be another one of them at her residence but that they were not purchased by her, but by someone she knows who probably uses them to pass drug screens.”
Duncan was booked into Vanderburgh County Jail last Wednesday on one count of criminal possession and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia.
WFIE reported that she was fired the same day as her arrest.