PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – Anclote High School Assistant Principal Donna Lynch Haff was arrested Monday for allegedly having a cookie laced with marijuana oil.
Haff was not at school Tuesday. She’s been placed on paid leave.
Students can’t believe it “Oh yeah, for sure I was shocked cause I wasn’t thinking it wasn’t her doing it, especially not her,” Braxton Johnson said.
Deputies said Haff got sick Sunday after eating the cookie. She was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital North in Tampa because she overdosed.
Investigators said Haff got the cookie from her daughter because she wanted to try it for her 50th birthday.
Johnson said word spread around school fast. “Yeah, it’s been crazy all day. They already got memes made for her,” he said. “She was a good principal. She always wanted you to do the right things.”
Haff, 50, is now charged with possession of a controlled substance. “We can’t have our administrators in a position where they’re facing felony charges for using drugs,” Pasco County School District Spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said.
She will now have to go before the director of employee relations. Her daughter, Allison, 19, was also arrested for possession of marijuana. She got the cookie from a coworker.
District leaders say this is not like Haff. “It’s out of character for this woman that everyone is shocked and of course it’s disturbing. But given what we know at this time we have to take action,” Cobbe said.
Both mother and daughter have since bonded out.
No one answered the door at Haff’s home.
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