New Hampshire school defends staying quiet about dean's heroin arrest

PEMBROKE, N.H. --School officials are defending their decision not to notify parents and students after the dean at a public high school in New Hampshire was arrested at the school and charged with heroin possession.

The Concord Monitor reports 36-year-old Rekha Luther of Manchester was arrested at Pembroke Academy on Feb. 17 and charged with four felony counts of possession of drugs, including heroin and steroids.

The newspaper reports that she and her lawyer did not return calls seeking comment.

Luther appeared in Hooksett District Court on Monday and remains free on $10,000 bond. She resigned as dean of students in March.

School superintendent Patty Sherman said parents would be notified if the headmaster resigns, but "probably not" if a dean leaves.

Top district officials declined to discuss the arrest in interviews with the Concord Monitor on Thursday and Friday. Headmaster Paul Famulari, school board Chairman Tom Serafin and Sherman each called it a "personnel issue."

Luther was hired last year to be dean of students after spending 11 years in the Nashua School District.

Pembroke Police Chief Dwayne Gilman said the investigation began after someone called to report finding a "whole bundle" of hypodermic needles at the school. Gilman said the investigation determined the needles belonged to Luther.

"Everything you don't want to hear in a school happened in one day."

Jeanne LaBarge, the parent of a student at the school, said she noticed Luther's name in police logs and found that none of her friends knew anything about the charges or why Luther was no longer employed at the school.

She said Famulari assured her in an email that student safety was never compromised and that he needed to protect Luther's professional privacy.

"If someone in a position of authority has heroin in their possession, that's not private anymore," she told the newspaper. "You lose your privacy."