A teacher at a Fayetteville elementary school was arrested on drug trafficking charges on Mar. 18 and was released within hours of the arrest.

ANTONISHA JHANELLE CHAMBERS

Antonisha Jhanelle Chambers, age 34, was arrested and charged with Trafficking by Possession, Trafficking by Transport, Maintaining Dwelling for the Purposes of Narcotics, & Conspiracy.

Chambers was arrested on Mar. 18 and was released just hours after arrest on an unknown bond amount, according to the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office.

According to a Facebook post by the Fayetteville Police Department, detectives seized “over 4 pounds of methamphetamine during this investigation.”

GORDON BRADFORD

Also arrested was Bradford Gordon, age 29. He was charged with Trafficking by Possession, Trafficking by Transport, Maintaining Dwelling for the Purposes of Narcotics, & Conspiracy

The Fayetteville Police Department’s Facebook post also states that Chambers is “in the United States on a visa.”

Chambers is a first-grade teacher at E. Melvin Honeycutt Elementary school. The school is part of the Cumberland County Public Schools District.

According to the Fayetteville Observer, the district is aware of Chambers’ arrest:

Lindsay Whitley, a schools spokesman, said schools officials were aware an employee was arrested and charged Friday based on allegations related to off-campus drug trafficking.

“The arrest did not take place on the school campus and students were not made aware of this situation,” said Whitley, who is associate superintendent of Communications & Community Engagement. “District officials learned about the arrest after the instructional day had ended and the employee had already left campus.”

Whitley added: “We take this situation very seriously, and while these allegations are very disappointing, they do not overshadow the work that our employees do on a daily basis to help students succeed in the classroom and beyond. Prior to hiring employees, the district conducts extensive background checks and provides ethics training to employees once hired.

Chambers was hired by Cumberland County Schools on Aug. 8, 2021, according to the system. An official employment status update will be available after the system’s Human Resources department is able to meet with the employee, Whitley said in the statement.

Chambers’ hire date of Aug. 9, 2021, was confirmed by a Cumberland County Public Schools communications official. The district also confirmed that she was suspended with pay on Mar. 21, 2022.

The district also offered the following statement:

District officials are aware that a CCS employee was arrested and charged yesterday based on allegations related to off-campus drug trafficking. The arrest did not take place on the school campus and students were not made aware of this situation. District officials learned about the arrest after the instructional day had ended and the employee had already left campus.

We take this situation very seriously, and while these allegations are very disappointing, they do not overshadow the work that our employees do on a daily basis to help students succeed in the classroom and beyond. Prior to hiring employees, the district conducts extensive background checks and provides ethics training to employees once hired.

We will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as they investigate this off-campus matter.

The district did not answer questions about Chambers’ Visa status and the date of her most recent background check.

According to CBS 17, a parent had raised concerns about Chambers prior to her arrest.

“June Callender recently had her daughter removed from Chambers’ first-grade class,” according to CBS 17.

“She had called my daughter dumb. She did not deny that she was saying those things. She said it was part of her culture,” Callender told CBS 17.

Callender also said she had complained to the principal and to the assistant superintendent about the incident but nothing was ever done

Chambers is the second Cumberland County Public Schools employee arrested this month. On the same day as Chambers’ arrest, another teacher was arrested on 56 sex crime charges.

WILLIAM LANDON SMITH

William Landon Smith, age 31, was arrested on Mar. 18 and charged with 27 counts of first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, 28 counts of indecent liberties with a student, and one count of peeping involving a secretly installed imaging device used to arouse or gratify sexual desire.