Marijuana Joint Found In Concord Elementary School Being Investigated

CONCORD, NH — The Concord School District is investigating a marijuana joint that was found inside the Beaver Meadow Elementary School in March.

Limited information is available about the case, but anonymous letters were sent to media outlets and school board members last week outlying the incident and wondering why action had not been taken. According to the letter, on March 29, a joint was found by a teacher walking near the kitchen entry door of the school. The school’s principal, Michele Vance, was requested to eye the item, and she confirmed it was a marijuana joint. The joint was placed in a bag and locked in a safe, and officials were contacted about the finding. Security video was also eyed at the school.

SAU 8 School Superintendent Kathleen Murphy confirmed the incident and also received the anonymous letter. She said the matter was under investigation.

“It’s a violation of school rules,” she said. “You can’t have drugs on campus.”

Murphy said she did not have all the information about the incident but said, at the time, she requested Vance to place the joint in a safe and investigate the matter. She said the joint, which was actually half a joint in size, was found in a hallway outside the cafeteria kitchen where the students are not allowed.

“We knew nothing until six weeks later,” she said after receiving information in the anonymous letter with a lot of detail.

Karen Fischer-Anderson, the school safety and compliance officer, was now looking into the matter, Murphy said.

The letter writer wondered why there was not a police investigation due to schools being drug-safe zones. Marijuana possession on the level of a joint in the state of New Hampshire, while still a controlled drug at the federal level, is considered a civil infraction until the third violation. The letter writer likened the incident to the Prima “Howie” Leung situation, where school officials decided not to contact police.

“The city school district has brushed another case under the rug, so they don’t need to be transparency (sic) to the taxpayers that pays (sic) their wages,” they wrote.

Murphy said the level of detail in the anonymous letter showed her the person was connected to the school. She was bewildered as to why they did not pick up the phone and call her directly about it, adding she had looked at every single case and tip she had received concerning allegations against educators and administrators and taken them seriously, too. Murphy pointed to the Joshua Harwood case from 2021 as one example; another was the cross-dressing elementary school art teacher some parents complained about.

“We’re on it,” she said, “it is being looked at,” adding she could not say much about the situation until the investigation was completed.

Do you have a news tip? Please email it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the NH politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.