An elementary school teaching assistant who’s related to a former Rhode Island congressman is accused of leaving a baggie of cocaine inside a school bathroom, according to a police report.
Stephanie Cicilline-Given, 58, was arrested March 12 after investigators linked her to drugs found in the nurse’s office bathroom at Chester W. Barrows Elementary School, local outlets reported, citing police paperwork.
Cicilline-Given is the younger sister of former Democratic Rep. David Cicilline, according to NBC 10.
The discovery reportedly started when the school nurse turned over a small plastic bag that tested positive for cocaine, along with a plastic straw investigators say is commonly used to ingest the drug. The principal then contacted Cranston police, the report said.
Police allegedly narrowed in on Cicilline-Given because she was the last known adult to use the bathroom before morning recess.
But when officers approached her, Cicilline-Given reportedly thought the issue was a missing vape.
According to the police report, the moment an officer told her they found cocaine — not a vape — she asked whether she’d need a lawyer, before police had formally accused her of anything.
Investigators said she repeatedly asked about the vape while insisting she didn’t know anything about the cocaine.
Then, the report describes a striking shift.
“I don’t want all these teachers to go through this. What if I said the cocaine was mine? What would happen next?” she allegedly asked.
Police say she quickly clarified she wasn’t confessing to leaving drugs at school — but admitted she occasionally uses cocaine outside of work.
She also told investigators she switched purses that morning and likely left her vape at home, and she was worried about losing her job, the report said.
At one point, the report claims she started laughing as an officer pressed her for details.
Investigators speculated the cocaine may have fallen out of her bag while she was in the bathroom doing her makeup, according to the report.
Cicilline-Given was charged with a misdemeanor count of cocaine possession, according to the arrest log. She is scheduled to appear in court on April 21.
The report also noted a prior family brush with law enforcement: in 2018, another sister, Susan Cicilline-Buonanno — a former Rhode Island councilwoman — was pulled over on the TV show A&E Live PD under suspicion of DUI, but was released after the officer determined she was “under medication,” according to reports.
She should have known plastic straws are outlawed in some states.