The Dalton Police Department arrested Jahala Hawkins, 38, of Dalton on Friday on charges related to the theft of drugs from a medicine locker at Morris Innovative High School.
Hawkins, who is not an employee of the Dalton Public Schools system, served as a paid volunteer at the school through the AmeriCorps VISTA program.
The investigation into the theft began on Thursday afternoon when an assistant principal reported to the DPD School Resource Officer (SRO) that there were pills missing from the medicine locker. The school resource officer secured the medicine lock box in her office at the school and continued the investigation Friday morning with assistance from detectives from the DPD’s drug unit.
The investigation determined that Hawkins, of 1008 Ponderosa Place in Dalton, had taken at least 20 pills of Adderall and Ritalin from pill bottles belonging to two students at the school over an undetermined amount of time.
Hawkins was arrested and charged with two counts of theft by taking and two counts of possession of a schedule 2 drug.