Charges dropped against SC kindergarten teacher arrested in 2017

Oct. 27, 2020 update: The charges against Mary Hamilton were dropped in 2017.

A kindergarten teacher at Myrtle Beach Primary School was arrested Thursday on several drug charges according to records from the J. Rueben Long Detention Center.

Records show that Mary Britt Hamilton, 31, was arrested and charged with six counts of violating drug distribution laws. She was released on bond Thursday.

Chief Human Resources Officer Mary Anderson said the district had reached out to Hamilton, who has been employed since August 2015, but has not heard back yet.

According to online court records, Hamilton’s case is still pending.

School is currently out of session and Anderson said that typically, if charges are still pending when school is back in session, an employee would be placed on administrative leave while the case comes to a conclusion.

“Typically if a person a person is arrested and found guilty of charges we reported that to the state department (of education), they may take action on that teacher’s certificate,” said Anderson, who stressed that she couldn’t comment on exactly what would happen to Hamilton.

Hamilton obtained a generic form of Adderall by fraud on six different occasions between December 2016 and March 2017, using a false doctor’s signature, according to a warrant obtained from the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The drug is a schedule II controlled substance according to the South Carolina Bureau of Drug Control, a division of DHEC.

According to the warrants, Hamilton used a false signature to obtain the drug from the CVS pharmacy at 1306 38th Avenue North on December 29, 2016, February 1, 2017 and March 6, 2017.

She used a false signature to obtain the drug from the Walmart pharmacy on 540 Seaboard St. on January 7, February 9 and March 16 of this year, according to the warrants.

This story was originally published June 19, 2017 at 3:08 PM.