Teacher accused of smoking pot

Substitute educator also allegedly gave student sex toy as present

A former Albuquerque Public Schools substitute teacher is accused of giving a sex toy to a teen and smoking weed with students.

According to an APS police report, former Jimmy Carter Middle School sub Claude Carroll, 57, allegedly gave a sex toy to a 14-year-old student as a birthday present.

He also is accused of giving and smoking marijuana with two other students.

“Once they got in Mr. Carroll’s car, (he) packed a ‘bowl’ and passed the pipe to them in order to smoke weed with him,” the report says.

Carroll was put on unpaid leave in February with the district.

At the time, the district only said, “The allegations, that I’m aware of at this moment in time, are not violent in nature … and do not involve sexual assault.”

APS previously confirmed to the Journal that Carroll resigned effective March 2.

The district could not be reached for additional comment Wednesday from the Journal, including why he wasn’t fired.

Bernalillo County District Attorney office spokesman Michael Patrick said the case has been assigned to a prosecutor, but it has not been presented to a grand jury. APS police recommended Carroll be charged with contributing to delinquency to a minor.

The report also says an unidentified person police spoke with was “upset with school administration because they knew about Carroll’s inappropriate behavior and nothing was done about it.”

The previous principal and assistant principal at Jimmy

Carter Middle School no longer work at the school and have been reassigned to new roles within the district.

Then-principal Amy Mahr is a district director of AVID, or Advancement Via Individual Determination, a college readiness program. And former assistant principal Frances Chavez is the assistant principal at Sandia High School.

Up until now, little information was given to the community on this case.

The Journal previously filed requests for information regarding the reassignment, the internal investigation and emails surrounding Mahr and Chavez, but APS declined to release any information, citing “Matters of Opinion” under the New Mexico Inspection of Public Records Act as the reason.