TEACHER'S DRUG CHARGE ISN'T A SIMPLE ISSUE

Students at Roberts Elementary School learned a harsh lesson Jan. 13. That
was the day the Houston Independent School District dispatched its
drug-sniffing dog to check the school's teacher parking lot.

The search at Roberts was part of a larger HISD crackdown. A month before,
after a string of teachers were arrested on drug charges, Superintendent
Abelardo Saavedra announced plans to have a dog sniff every teacher
parking lot in the district -- never mind whether anyone thought the
school had a drug problem.

And no one thought Roberts Elementary had a drug problem -- or, for that
matter, any real problem at all. Roberts, near the Texas Medical Center,
is a sweet, safe-feeling place, full of kids' art and parent volunteers.

Roberts is on Texas Monthly's list of the best public schools in the state
and in 2008 won six Gold Performance Awards from the Texas Education
Agency. An International Baccalaureate school, it teaches its kids to
think in complex ways. It's a school that works.

But on that Tuesday morning, just before lunch, Roberts suddenly had a
problem. After two false alarms, the dog pointed to the last car anyone at
Roberts would have expected: the car belonging to beloved art teacher
Mindy Herrick.

Teacher Of The Year

Herrick, 59, has taught at Roberts for 17 years. Parents describe her as
"inspirational," "talented" and "loving."

She comes to work early so kids can finish projects they didn't have time
to complete in class. So many kids wanted to join her after-school art
club that it had to be restricted to fifth-graders. More than one parent
tells how she dropped by a student's house, bearing art books that she
thought might be of interest.

She's a ferocious doubles tennis player, nationally ranked, so fanatical
about her game that she hesitated a year before taking cholesterol meds
that her doctor prescribed.

In 1995 and 1999, Herrick was Roberts' teacher of the year. For 2005-06,
she was teacher of the year for HISD's entire Central District. And in
2009, she was busted.

In the middle of a class, police escorted her from her classroom. After
she unlocked her car, police found a baggie with two Xanax pills.

Herrick said she has no idea how the pills got into her car, which other
people in her family drive.

But no matter. She was hauled away from the school she loves in the back
of a squad car and charged with possession of a controlled substance
within 1,000 feet of a school. If convicted of that third-degree felony,
she could serve two to 10 years in prison.

Heart On The Door

Roberts parents have started a legal-defense fund, and they're organizing
to provide hundreds of character witnesses. Herrick's classroom door is
covered with kids' drawings. "We love you, Ms. Herrick!" says one with a
big heart. In big letters, another declares, "We miss you!"

Her lawyer, Kent Schaffer, expects the grand jury to no-bill her. A drug
screen showed that she had no Xanax in her system, he says. She passed a
lie-detector test showing that she knows nothing about the pills. And
she's asked for the baggie to be fingerprinted, to prove that she never
touched it.

But for now, she's stuck in paid administrative leave, a busywork limbo.
Her students miss her fiercely. And parents worry that, betrayed by the
school district she served so well and so long, she may never return.

When talking with their kids, some parents try to turn Herrick's arrest
into a civics lesson.

They explain that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

They explain that there's an enormous difference between dealing heroin
and unknowingly having a couple of prescription pills in your glove box.

They explain that though the school district must fight drugs, a
zero-tolerance witch hunt can damage the school it was intended to
protect.

Probably some of the kids understand all that. They're International
Baccalaureate students, after all. They've been taught to handle
complexity.

Unfortunately, you can't say the same of their school district.