Just a few days before she was arrested, a second-grade teacher in Virginia who was given a two-year prison sentence for using narcotics and being drunk in class brought her child along to purchase drugs, according to the prosecution.
Candyce Carter, according to the prosecution, had her husband deliver drugs to her at Spotswood Elementary School in Spotsylvania County on May 16, 2024.
According to the prosecution, staff discovered her sleeping on her classroom floor, acting strangely, and with a bag of pills close by.
The mother of one of the students in the class, Stacey Linkenhoker, stated, “That’s not something that just goes away. It’s not something he’ll be able to forget.”
“He asked me if she would rather do drugs than be his teacher, and that was not an easy question to answer,” she stated.
Prosecutors claimed that Carter had brought her 2-year-old child along to purchase cocaine and fentanyl a few days prior.
According to prosecutors, Carter’s husband, Kristopher Carter, was also discovered unconscious in the parking lot with their child in the car by school personnel on the day of her arrest.
After administering Narcan to resuscitate him, paramedics assessed each pupil in the class to ensure they had not been exposed to the medications.
“She could’ve potentially killed a child,” Linkenhoker stated. “That’s not easy to reconcile as a mother.”
In February, Candyce Carter entered a guilty plea to 19 charges, including narcotics possession and endangering the safety of children.
In addition, Kristopher Carter entered a guilty plea to narcotics dealing and child endangerment.
A judge sentenced the Carters to roughly two years in jail each, while a number of Spotswood Elementary teachers were present in court on Friday.
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Both of the Carters expressed their regret for their acts in court, with Candyce Carter stating that words cannot relieve the stress she brought to the community and Kristopher Carter stating that he felt “completely ashamed.”
“As a human being, I have a lot of empathy for her, and I hope she does stay in recovery and I hope she did learn from this situation,” Linkenhoker stated.
The principal of Spotswood Elementary told the judge that hiring teachers has been difficult since the tragedy and that they are trying to reassure parents that their children can still be sent there safely.
According to defense lawyers, the Carters have split up and have been participating in and leading addiction treatment programs.
Although the court has the final say, the Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office informed that it feels exposing kids to fentanyl at school should result in a harsher punishment.
