OMAHA — A second-grade teacher arrested this week on drug charges said she hopes her students learn from her mistake. Jolene Cortez, 33, was charged on Tuesday with possession of methamphetamine and intent to deliver.

In an interview with KMTV-TV in Omaha, shortly before her release from jail, Cortez was asked what she would like to say to her students.

"That grown-ups make mistakes, too, and that Miss Cortez will take her punishment coming to her," Cortez said.

She's been suspended with pay from Conestoga Elementary School, where she has taught for the past two years, pending the investigation. Cortez said she'd like to return to the classroom soon. She faces up to 20 years in prison and a $25,000 fine for each charge.

Cortez said she did not use the drug but wouldn't discuss other details of the case.

In court Tuesday, prosecutors said officers found between 2.5 ounces and 3.5 ounces of methamphetamine and some money in her purse. Cortez told officers she had been selling the drug for extra money, prosecutors said.

Cortez said she wanted the parents and the school's principal to know how sorry she is. She said she is not sure how to explain her actions to her 6-year-old son.

"I don't go out, I don't party. I made a really bad choice," Cortez said.

Cortez said she enjoys teaching and providing comfort to students who often have troubled lives at home.

She said her troubles date to five months ago, when her friend and mentor, Danette Cox, was killed in a murder-suicide by a man with whom Cox was involved. Cortez said she told Cox, a fellow teacher at Conestoga, to get out of the relationship and feels as though she may have prompted her friend's death.

There was no indication that Cortez brought the drugs to school and there have been no problems with her teaching, other than a recent slew of absences, said Luanne Nelson, with the Omaha Public School District.

Students at the school took home notes on Tuesday explaining the situation to their parents, Nelson said.

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