by Lexi Matthews ’18

School counselor Erin McKenna was arrested in a drug raid at the Mason Inn in Washington D.C. on February 1, charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute as a misdemeanor. McKenna, along with Joshua Myers and Scott Price, were in possession of 102 assorted edibles, five brown liquid capsules, nine bags of marijuana and two jars of marijuana when police arrived and searched their vendor table at the bar. Price is a  a digital arts teacher at Kingsview Middle School in Germantown as well as a tech teacher at Wheaton High School.

While possession of up to two ounces of marijuana is legal in the District, the private sale of the schedule I drug is not. According to District of Columbia Superior Court documents, McKenna and Price will plead not guilty to the charges during their trials on March 7. McKenna is on administrative leave as of February 14.

Rumors of the arrest began to gain traction across Sherwood around the week of February 5, limited to gossip among students and teachers. The news became solidified as fact on February 14, when local news channel ABC 7 broke the story around 5:30 pm on Twitter. Hours later, Principal Bill Gregory released a letter to inform the community that ‘a Sherwood High School staff member’ was recently arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge.

“We are committed to providing a safe learning environment for our students. We have followed all of our reporting protocols and are working with MCPS central office administration on this matter. The staff member has been placed on leave pending the results of an investigation,” wrote Gregory.

Many parents and community members have expressed outrage over the fact that it took the school two weeks to take any action regarding the incident, as McKenna remained at school as regularly scheduled until she was placed on leave. While the MCPS employee code of conduct requires teachers to report any criminal charges to the MCPS Office of Human Resources and Development, the code of conduct does not require employees to report this information to principals. Thus, it remains unclear how long Gregory was aware of the incident before the date of the letter’s publication.

As this is a developing story, The Warrior will update this article with new information as it becomes confirmed.