Oslo Middle School teacher arrested in oxycodone sale, police say

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla. - For now, Raquel Wright’s arrest on drug sale charges isn’t affecting her $41,600-a-year teaching job with the Indian River County School District, a school spokeswoman said Tuesday.

If the Oslo Middle School teacher had been arrested when classes were in session, she might have been quickly suspended either with or without pay, pending the outcome of an investigation and the charges. However, public schools are out for the summer, so school officials say they have time to decide what to do, spokeswoman Patty Vasquez said Tuesday.

Schools go back into session Aug. 23.

Wright is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 17 in Indian River Circuit Court on a felony charge of trafficking in oxycodone. So far, she hasn’t entered a plea.

Wright, 36, of the 4600 block of 43rd Court, is out of the Indian River County Jail under a $150,000 bail. She was arrested Friday during a Vero Beach Police Department investigation into illegal oxycodone sales.

The School District hired Wright in August 2001 after she underwent a background check.

She started as a fifth-grade teacher at Glendale Elementary School. In 2007, she became a middle school teacher.

While employed as a teacher, she helped with an anti-bullying program and worked on a school float for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade.

However, police say at 6:33 p.m. Friday, she drove up in a 2008 silver Kia and tossed into an unmarked police vehicle a paper napkin containing 70 oxycodone pills, valued at $1,000, reports show. That was after investigators arranged by phone to meet Wright in a parking lot in the 1700 block of U.S. 1, according to an arrest affidavit.

Wright couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday.

“We will certainly be investigating this (Wright’s status)” with the School District, Vasquez said.