Teacher After Snorting Coke in Front of Students

In an incident that perhaps gives a new meaning to the phrase 'supply teacher', a 59-year-old substitute teacher has been arrested on suspicion of repeatedly taking cocaine in front of the class she was teaching.

The arrest came after two girls – one nine, the other ten – reported that Joan Donatelli had been dipping a pen cap into a small plastic bag filled with white powder, then putting the pen lid to her nose.

Police subsequently found traces of white powder in the classroom. When they confronted Donatelli at her home, she handed over a small green bag of powder and two pen caps – both of which tested positive for the drug - and admitting to using cocaine in front of the children.

'She stated that she had a probloem, that she had an addiction, something she's been struggling with,' said Sergeant Frank Previte, of the Lewiston, NY police.

The school confirmed that Donatelli used to teach at the school full time, but is now retired, although she acts as a substitute. During her time as a full-time teacher at the school, as recently as 2004, she would have been one of the teachers involved in the school's drug education curriculum.