Charges: Mom Was High When Driving Kids To School

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A 28-year-old woman is accused of driving high last week as she dropped her children off at an elementary school in the north metro.

Kayla Jean Cameron, of Cedar, is charged with fifth-degree drug possession, a felony, and third-degree driving while impaired, a gross misdemeanor, court documents filed in Anoka County show.

According to a criminal complaint, someone called authorities Friday morning after seeing Cameron driving "all over the road" in Lino Lakes, near Rice Lake Elementary School.

When officers responded, they saw Cameron drive out of the school parking lot in a car with a cracked windshield and broken brake light.

They pulled her over, and noted the strong smell of marijuana, as well as a young child in the back seat, the complaint states.

After failing field sobriety tests, Cameron told officers that she smoked marijuana and took pills the night before, adding that she did not have a prescription for the pills, which were identified later as Alprazolam.

Alprazolam is a controled substance, and is prescribed under the trade name Xanax.

Cameron also told authorities that she didn't have a driver's license, and that she had been taking her children to school the last few days.

A search of Cameron's car turned up a bag of pills, a few of which were Alprazolam, and a bag of what appeared to be marijuana, the complaint states.

If convicted of the felony drug charge, Cameron faces up to 5 years in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.