Louisiana Teacher Finds Cocaine in Kindergartener's Cubby

A Louisiana Kindergarten teacher made a shocking discovery after one of her students was checked out and returned 15 minutes later.

The 7-year-old boy was checked out by his mother, Mari Mejia Zelaya, from his Metarie Elementary School in hopes of removing four bags of cocaine from her son's book sack. Whether she intentionally or accidentally stashed the drug there is still unconfirmed.

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However, when she checked her son out of school, he had already removed the bags and placed them in his cubby hole in his J.C. Ellis Elementary School classroom. Zelaya, 25, dropped her son back off at school with hopes of having him retrieve the bags from the cubby and placing them back in his school bag for her to recover when she checked him out of school the second time.

It was when the 7-year-old started to remove the four bags of cocaine from his cubby hole that his teacher noticed what he had in his possession. When his teacher inquired about the bags, he said it was "something mommy forgot." She immediately notified school administrators that she was concerned one of her "student(s) may have brought an illegal substance to school".

According to The Advocate, The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Department responded to the call where they took the 7-year-old's mother into custody. She was then "booked with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and cruelty to a juvenile involving drugs."

Detective Jeremy Budo said the four bags contained 28 grams of cocaine, not including the other four ounces Zelaya threw under a vehicle outside when law enforcement arrived at the school.

Bail has been set at $100,000, and Jefferson Parish Assistant District Attorney Kellie Rish believes they have enough evidence to hold her because she was "criminally negligently and then intentionally exposed a 7-year-old and the rest of his classmates to narcotics".