This news story was first reported at this link. The following is an update.
Last week, according to the superintendent at the School District of Phillips, a teacher was arrested for possession of drugs (marijuana, meth, and drug paraphernalia). He was arrested on school grounds. Community members have spoken out on social media and also asked us some questions, so My Price County / My Northern Wisconsin reached out to Chief Hauschild to get some truthful answers and quell the rumors.
Chief Hauschild stated the teacher arrested on school grounds "was not in possession of meth on school grounds. He was not under the influence of an illegal substance while at school. He was taken into custody at school. A search warrant was conducted at his residence and that is what lead to his arrest."
Due to a social media comment, we asked Chief Hauschild if meth is transferred by the skin when someone is using it. He said, "As for absorbing meth through the skin with close contact if someone is using, this is possible but would have to be over a long period of time and the levels would not be dangerous as if you touched the product."
People also asked how the media got the name and photo of the person who was arrested. To our knowledge, a press release was not sent out by any police agencies in Price County. In our experience, the police in Price County do not send out many press releases and seem to send far fewer than most neighboring counties who also send press releases to My Northern Wisconsin. The information about the teacher's arrest originated from a message sent to parents, staff, and others from the school's superintendent. The name was released but his photo was not attached. One TV station likely took the arrested person's photo from the School District of Phillips' website, and the other TV station likely got the photo from the arrested person's Facebook cover photo. That station removed the photo from their Facebook page but kept it on their website, so whenever anyone shares their story on Facebook, his picture will show with the published link. They did not fully remove his photo. Consistent with our policy under these circumstances, My Price County published the news story, as many people like to know when important information is released from the school's superintendent, but we did not publish the person's name or photo. Except when other conditions are met, we do not publish a name or photo of those who are accused, because we err on the side of "innocent until proven guilty," among other reasons.
Further, people asked why this teacher's arrest was publicized but accusations and arrests of staff members were not publicized in the past. In our experience, reporting news since 2015, the previous superintendent did not send out messages about these types of situations, but there is a new superintendent this year who chose to keep the public informed with this information.
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