By Eric Jankiewicz
A Queens substitute teacher who was recently arrested during a drug raid taught at nine schools across the borough after dropping out of high school for several years as a teenager and earning her diploma as an adult last year.
Police raided an Ozone Park house on Sutter Avenue last week where Gloria Chamorro, now 24, lives with her family. Her boyfriend Luis Lizardo was the target of the raid, according to a spokeswoman for the Special Narcotics Office.
In the house, police found 10 grams of heroin along with such drug-related items as hundreds of the wax bags often used to distribute heroin, a stamper, an ink pad, rubber bands and a strainer, the Special Narcotics Office said.
Chamorro and Lizardo, 36, were then charged last week in Manhattan Criminal Court with several counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and criminally using drug paraphernalia, authorities said. Both pleaded not guilty. And Chamorro was suspended without pay, according to a spokesman for the Department of Education. Bail was set at $20,000 for Lizardo and Chamorro was released on her own recognizance.
Soon after being released, Chamorro voluntarily entered an inpatient rehab clinic, her family said.
Chamorro, who is a substitute teacher and a school bus aide, confessed to authorities that she attempted to flush heroin down the sink during the raid as police were trying to enter the home, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
“These allegations are disturbing,” said DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye. “Ms. Chamorro was immediately suspended without pay, and is away from any students.”
As a substitute, Chamorro worked in several schools throughout Queens with children in elementary and junior high schools, according to authorities. She began work as a substitute in September 2014. Earlier that year, she earned her high school diploma from the adult section of the Charles Henry Churn Christian Academy, a private school in Brooklyn.
“I always want to hear that students succeeded after they leave here,” said Linda Hunts, a teacher who taught Chamorro at the academy and remembers her as “the student who asked a lot of questions.”
She continued, “So it’s very sad to hear this happened to her.”
Chamorro dropped out of the school when she was a teenager, according to Hunts, and returned to the school last year to complete her high school degree.
According to the DOE, substitute teachers do not have any education requirements. A relative of the family who did not want to be identified said Chamorro dropped out of high school after she met Lizardo, who is more than 10 years older than she is.
“Ever since she met him things have gotten bad,” the relative said.
Chamorro, according to a confidential source, worked regularly at JHS 202, PS/IS 295, PS 139 in Rego Park, PS 105 in Far Rockaway and The Pioneer Academy. Some of the schools also reported that Chamorro had attendance issues and JHS 202 and PS/IS 295 did not want her back because of this problem. Chamorro also worked at several other schools for just a day or two.
Teachers at PS 295 declined to comment on Chamorro and when a secretary at the school was asked about her past, the teacher responded, “I’m not going to do your homework for you.”
