{"id":59298,"date":"2017-09-24T13:26:05","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T20:26:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=59298"},"modified":"2017-09-25T08:34:27","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T15:34:27","slug":"teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/","title":{"rendered":"Teacher Faces 10 Years for Blowing $31K of School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Michigan teacher who blew $31,000 of school money on penny slots at the MGM Grand Detroit<\/a> is facing a maximum ten years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n

\"Detroit
Lydia Johnson, a math and Spanish teacher at Dakota High School in Detroit, is accused of embezzling money from the school\u2019s senior homecoming and camping funds to feed her addiction to penny slots. (Image: Fox News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lydia Christine Johnson, 29, was, until very recently, a math and Spanish teacher at Dakota High School in Macomb Township, Detroit<\/a>. But she was arraigned Thursday morning on one count of embezzlement from a non-profit organization.<\/p>\n

In her role as the coordinator of student activity, Johnson was responsible for collecting all funds related to school events, including the homecoming dance and a student and parent camping trip to Canada.<\/p>\n

But as Macomb Sheriff Anthony Wickersham put it \u201cmany of these students will now remember their senior homecoming for all the wrong reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2016 dance was expected to bring in $30,000, but Johnson deposited just $11,000 into the account. Meanwhile, the popular camping trip should have yielded $13,000, but only $500 was returned to the school.<\/p>\n

$90,000 Up in Smoke<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Canadian camp repeatedly attempted to collect their expected fees, but with no joy, and so it alerted the school. After questioning Johnson and finding her evasive, school officials called in the Macomb County Sheriff\u2019s Department. The teacher was placed on administrative leave on May 3, 2017.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, a search of Johnson\u2019s classroom turned up cash deposit envelopes for the senior homecoming that were torn open but empty, along with MGM Grand casino receipts. MGM Grand records showed that Johnson spent over $90,000 at the casino in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis teacher held a position of trust within the high school,\u201d the prosecutor said. \u201cShe repaid that trust by feeding student funds into a slot machine. So often these embezzlements stem from one of two things: drug or gambling addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this case, it was gambling,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt Hurts\u201d <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In an official statement, Chippewa Valley Schools Superintendent Ron Roberts said: \u201cWe have committed our full support and cooperation to the Sheriff\u2019s Department and the Macomb County Prosecutor\u2019s Office in this investigation. We will do whatever it takes to ensure that our board policies are followed and that our employees are acting in the best interest of our school community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very important to me to let the community know this (incident) is totally unexpected,\u201d he later told News-Herald.<\/em> \u201cWe take this very seriously. We are role models and we expect exemplary behavior from our employees. When this happens, it hurts. It\u2019s not the way it\u2019s supposed to be.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Johnson is free on a $10,000 personal bond which was set at her Thursday arraignment. She is due back in court on October 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Michigan teacher who blew $31,000 of school money on penny slots at the MGM Grand Detroit is facing a maximum ten years\u2019 imprisonment. Lydia Christine Johnson, 29, was, until very recently, a math and Spanish teacher at Dakota High School in Macomb Township, Detroit. But she was arraigned Thursday morning on one count of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":59317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTeacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-24T20:26:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-25T15:34:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"931\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"524\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Casino.org Staff Writer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/\",\"name\":\"Teacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-24T20:26:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-25T15:34:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\"},\"description\":\"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png\",\"width\":931,\"height\":524,\"caption\":\"Lydia Johnson, a math and Spanish teacher at Dakota High School in Detroit, is accused of embezzling money from the school\u2019s senior homecoming and camping funds to feed her addiction to penny slots. (Image: Fox News)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legal\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Teacher Faces 10 Years for Blowing $31K of School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77\",\"name\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Casino.org Staff Writer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Teacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit","description":"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Teacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit","og_description":"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2017-09-24T20:26:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-25T15:34:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":931,"height":524,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Casino.org Staff Writer","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Casino.org Staff Writer","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/","name":"Teacher Faces Ten Years for Blowing $31,000 in School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png","datePublished":"2017-09-24T20:26:05+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-25T15:34:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77"},"description":"A teacher was caught using school funds from the Detroit area school system to gamble over $31,000 at the MGM Grand Detroit.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506018461755.png","width":931,"height":524,"caption":"Lydia Johnson, a math and Spanish teacher at Dakota High School in Detroit, is accused of embezzling money from the school\u2019s senior homecoming and camping funds to feed her addiction to penny slots. (Image: Fox News)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/teacher-faces-10-years-blowing-31000-school-funds-mgm-grand-detroit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legal","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/legal\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Teacher Faces 10 Years for Blowing $31K of School Funds at MGM Grand Detroit"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c48bf89dc86da77b4d856c7b3b78d77","name":"Casino.org Staff Writer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0853bd574da5b217483afb1fbbee33a5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Casino.org Staff Writer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corg-staff-writer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59298"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}