Guidance secretary faces drug charges

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - A guidance counselor secretary at Lafayette-Winona Middle School in Norfolk was arrested in December on heroin and gun charges, but for the next two and a half months she continued to work at the school. Top school administrators said they had no idea about the arrest until WAVY.com contacted them Friday.

WAVY.com discovered police officers in Norfolk arrested Sheena Latoya Ingram on December 22 and charged her with possession of heroin and marijuana with the intent to distribute the drugs.  She was also charged with two counts of possession of a gun while in possession of drugs. 

School officials say Ingram hid her arrest from them, never telling them about it. Then, she was indicted by a grand jury on March 3 on all four felony charges. School leaders say Ingram never informed them of the indictments either.

Ingram continued to work at the middle school until WAVY.com contacted top school administrators on Friday and informed them of Ingram's arrest.  School officials say after our phone call, they immediately went to Lafayette-Winona Middle School, confronted the guidance secretary and put her on administrative leave pending the outcome of her trial.

"It was really through that contact that we became aware that we had an employee at one of the middle schools who had been arrested," said school spokesman Mike Spencer.   "Once we got that information, as policy would dictate, we placed that individual on leave."

It is school policy that the employees are responsible for informing the school if they are arrested on criminal charges.

"Just having a role model of that caliber around children is not what you and I would want for our children," said Spencer.

As of Friday afternoon, after WAVY.com's phone calls, Ingram is no longer working at the middle school. She is on leave.