A Duplin County high school teacher has been arrested for drug-related charges, including the manufacturing of methamphetamine.

James Calvin Jones

James Calvin Jones, age 31, is charged in two separate cases with manufacturing methamphetamine, three counts of sale/delivery of a controlled substance, and maintaining a vehicle/place for controlled substances.

The manufacture of a controlled substance like meth is a Class C felony. He was charged with a Class G. Other charges depend on the situation, according to state statute.

Arrest documents show that in January, a “testifying witness” said that Jones delivered crystal methamphetamine to them.

Jones has been released on a $20,000 bond. His next court date is April 12.

According to his profile on the East Duplin High page, Jones has taught English, History and Social Studies. He was also named East Duplin’s Teacher of the Year 2017-2018.

The profile also says he is or was an NC Teaching Fellow and is attempting to get a journalism education certification.

“Currenlty[SIC], I am working towards certification in journalism education and building a robust Journalism program here at East Duplin in hopes that the program leads the county, region and state in journalism education, media literacy and active citizenship.”

Jones has been employed in the Duplin County School district since 2009. The district indicated he has been placed on paid suspension.

Update: Records available at the time indicated a conviction date of 2-3-2020 for controlled substance at his home and selling a schedule II substance and that he received probation of less than 9 months.

Over four years since this article first posted, Jones emailed this site, characterizing the brevity of this article as “gross inaccurate reporting,” before proceeding to give more details. In response to the email and to be more thorough, his full statement regarding his plea bargain is being included here.

“I was not convicted; I pled guilty as part of a plea bargain to avoid the mandatory minimum sentence of 48 months.  In exchange, I received  a suspended sentence for a consolidated judgement of a Class G felony – sell schedule II and a misdemeanor maintaining a dwelling  as the initial commitment.  That suspended sentence was 2 years supervised probation and included TASC drug assessment and payment of all court costs in the sum of ~$1800.00, paid in full.  I served all two years of that probation which was completed  in February 2022.   I even completed SAIOP/SACOT and DART, receiving the highest commendation in my therapeutic community while there, serving as a Senior Leader and Peer Mentor.  I also earned certification as a Certified Peer Support Specialist in Addiction and Trauma Recovery, among other credentials in behavioral and community health.”

James Calvin Jones
Writer, Editor, & Educator / Proprietor, Desk43
M.A./Ph.D., Pacifica Graduate Institute
B.A, UNCW; M.A., APUS; C.J.E.; C.P.S.S.; C.H.W.-LI
North Carolina Teaching Fellow

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