Advertisement

Instead Of Paying For The Homecoming Dance, A High School Teacher Spent $90,000 At The Casino

Screen Shot 2017-09-21 at 3.28.51 PM

Fox 2 Detroit - A high school teacher in Macomb County is accused of stealing money from student events and spending it at a casino.

According to school officials, police, and prosecutors, Lydia Johnson stole several thousand dollars from Dakota High School’s homecoming dance fund, and from funds for a camping trip. 

Authorities say Johnson oversaw the ticket sales for Dakota’s 2016 Homecoming dance, and that, based on attendance, the ticket sales should have taken in nearly $30,000. Johnson deposited only $11,000 into the school’s Homecoming account.

School authorities say they found empty homecoming deposit envelopes in her classroom, and that her bank records show cash deposits far in excess of her salary.

Johnson also oversaw ticket sales and receipts for a 60 person student-and-parent trip to Camp Tamarack. Johnson should have collected and deposited nearly $13,000. Only $500 was deposited with the school.

Moreso, authorities say MGM Casino records show Johnson spent more than $90,000 there in 2016 playing penny slots. School officials say they also found several casino receipts next to the empty homecoming envelopes in her classroom.

Screen Shot 2017-09-21 at 3.32.29 PM

I just realized how smart it is for teachers to sign up to organize the homecoming dance. I bet it’s a battle of epic proportions in the break room between the teachers to be the person in charge of it. Probably all sorts of back door bribes and Mr. Johnson from social studies blackmailing Ms. Melton from geometry. Wouldn’t be shocked if teachers are stabbing each other with #2 pencils for the right to collect the homecoming money. Because that shit is a GOLDMINE. You have all these idiot kids paying you $100 a pop for a homecoming ticket, and they are trusting you, the teacher who makes $42,000 a year to deal with hormonal, angry teenagers, to keep a detailed and accurate tally of how many are sold? For sure not. $200 to homecoming, $100 in the pocket. Budget $3,000 for the DJ for 3 hours, pay him for 2, profit another grand. Streamers? Don’t need em. Punch bowl? The kids are just gonna spike it anyway. There are so many streams of revenue for a teacher to make from running a dance, it’s insane.

That being said, you can’t get sloppy with it. You see this type of thing all the time. Someone gets away with a nice little embezzlement, and then they get greedy. Next thing you know, the field trip money is paying for a new Mercedes and the poor people lunch fund just bought a vacation to Sandals, Jamaica. Or in this case, $90,000 goes to the penny slots at the Detroit casino. Stealing from the school is a profitable endeavor, but if you’re not careful, it’s a slippery slope. Hopefully this is a lesson to all the teachers out there, just be a little extra careful when pocketing the homecoming money, the cat’s now out of the bag.