An elementary school teacher was arrested after allegedly dealing drugs over the phone during class in Harris County, Texas.
Local law enforcement has been cracking down on gang violence, which involves cocaine, meth, and machine guns, ABC 13 reported on Friday, noting that officers said on Thursday that they had arrested 20 people.
The third-grade teacher at Sheldon Independent School District (ISD) was identified as Jessica Ferguson, whom authorities say they caught dealing drugs on a wiretap.
Ferguson was arrested on campus, and U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said, “She was on a call, taking part in that drug conspiracy while she was at school. And you can hear the children in the background.”
The teacher has since been placed on administrative leave.
The arrests came during an investigation into a gang called Rich Kingz, which could be connected to numerous murders or shootings dating back to 2020, KPRC reported on Thursday.
The school district said it is cooperating with the police investigation, noting that the teacher’s arrest did not happen in front of young students, per KHOU.
Those arrested are allegedly part of the Rich Kingz gang, “which has been operating for years out of southwest Houston and is responsible for drug trafficking and violent crimes across our entire city, including several murders,” said Douglas Williams, FBI special agent in charge.
Similarly, in Maryland, a first-grade teacher in Montgomery County was arrested in August in connection to an overdose death involving fentanyl that happened in Washington, DC, according to Breitbart News.
Police said the man who died in March after the fentanyl overdose had visited the county days before he was found deceased. He had reportedly reached out to the suspect, Sarah Katherine Magid, for Xanax, and police said text messages showed she sold to the man several times before he died.
Magid was suspended from her position at Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School and is facing several felony charges.
“It is important to note that about 30.3 tons of fentanyl have crossed the nation’s southern border since President Joe Biden took office, the Republican National Committee (RNC) said in June,” the report noted.