A fourth-grade teacher in Florida was arrested on Saturday after deputies found a 4-year-old in the woman's custody wandering alone outside, the Orlando Sentinel reported.
The Polk County, Florida Sheriff's Office said that the boy was discovered at 7:30 a.m. Saturday crying and asking for help. The boy was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear.
The teacher, 26-year-old Marsha Dolce, claimed she was helping a friend with a broken down car when she left the child at home.
But deputies found marijuana and a grinder on the kitchen counter, the Sentinel reported.
When deputies pressed Dolce, she admitted that she had lied, and visited someone she knew had marijuana while the boy was sleeping.
Dolce was charged with negligent child abuse, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
"This is not what we expect from a person in a position of public trust,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement to the Sentinel. “To think about this poor scared child crying in the street, not knowing where mom was — it is just a shame and should not have happened."
Dolce was reportedly only a teacher for three months before her arrest.
