Math Teacher Arrested on Drug Charge : Newbury Park: A popular instructor, placed on leave after the incident at the high school, accuses administrators of harassing him.

A Newbury Park High School teacher, who was charged this week with being under the influence of cocaine at school, on Thursday acknowledged the drug was in his system when he was arrested but said he took it off campus.

“Yes, I had cocaine in my system. I had it from the weekend,” said Larry Jerome Johnson, 48, who has taught business and math at the high school for 21 years.

“But I don’t use it in school, and I don’t deal,” he said during an interview in his Moorpark home, littered with debris from a drug search by sheriff’s deputies, where he described a life style that includes three ex-wives--two of them former students--and a pregnant girlfriend.

Johnson was arrested Wednesday morning after Principal Paris Earls phoned the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and reported that his behavior was erratic, said Lt. Richard Diaz. The reported symptoms included rapid speech, talkativeness and slight bleeding from the nose, Diaz said.

Johnson was released on his own recognizance later that afternoon and is scheduled for arraignment March 2 in Ventura Municipal Court. The charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.

William R. Seaver, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said Johnson has been placed on administrative leave with pay until he is formally charged in court. He declined to discuss Johnson’s case or background in the 17,000-student school system, where Johnson has worked since 1969.

Seaver said Johnson’s arrest for drug use was unprecedented in the district’s 16-year history.

Three of Johnson’s students on Thursday described him as a popular instructor whose sense of humor and low-pressure style made him an effective teacher.

“He doesn’t put on the pressure,” said Jeff Jay, an 18-year-old senior. “He runs his class so we want to learn.”

Johnson accused school administrators of harassing him because of a heart condition that has caused him to be frequently absent. He said he had two heart attacks last year and always carries a vial of nitroglycerin, which he suggested may have been mistaken for cocaine, triggering his arrest.

Later, however, he volunteered that he had used the substance over the weekend and still had it in his system at school.

Seaver and Earls declined to respond.

As he surveyed the mess left by a police search of his three-bedroom house, Johnson said school officials had been harassing him since he returned from an alcohol-rehabilitation program five years ago. He said later that he had been convicted of driving under the influence. He added that he openly spoke of that incident and his divorces with his students.

Johnson said he is divorced. He said he had been married three times--twice to former students--and has three children and a pregnant girlfriend.

“I’m an open book,” said Johnson, who wore a Corvette jacket and a Corvette hat to match the fire-engine red car parked in front of his home.

Outside, Johnson’s house looked like any other in the sparkling residential tract in the Peach Hill section of Moorpark. Inside, however, linens, magazines, clothes, cleaning supplies and other household items were strewn about in a scene of havoc.

The walls were covered by posters of scantily dressed women, including one promoting a brand of long-necked beer bearing the words: “Get Neck’ed.”

“It’s embarrassing,” Johnson said of his arrest. Of the search, he said, “There’s no reason to do this. It’s just so depressing.”

He and four friends prepared to leave. “Yeah, I got the schnapps,” he called out to the others.

“You may not think I’m a neat guy,” he told a visitor, “but I think I am.”