Fairfax Educator, Loudoun Teacher Are Facing Charges

Drug and Alcohol Violations Alleged

An assistant principal at a Fairfax County elementary school has been charged with growing marijuana inside his home, news that emerged on the same day that a Loudoun County middle school teacher allegedly showed up for work drunk.

After receiving a tip that Leonard E. Marsh, 50, was growing marijuana, police searched the trash outside his Fairfax Station home and found pot residue, according to a search warrant affidavit. On Monday night, police searched the house on South Park Circle and found a marijuana-growing operation, Circuit Court records show.

Marsh, an assistant principal at Cub Run Elementary School in Centreville, was charged with one felony count of manufacturing marijuana. There were no allegations that Marsh sold or distributed marijuana.

He was placed on administrative leave, and Principal Jenni Coakley sent a letter home to parents yesterday letting them know how the arrest was discussed with the children.

Paul Regnier, spokesman for Fairfax schools, said there was no indication that Marsh had possessed marijuana or supplied anyone with marijuana on school grounds. Fairfax police said they did not identify Marsh as a school administrator in a news release Wednesday because there was no allegation of any link to the school.

Marsh's wife, Jinny S. Marsh, 56, was issued a misdemeanor summons for possession of marijuana and was not arrested. She is the lead singer of Jinny Marsh's Hot Kugel Klezmer Band, which has performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival and various festivals across the country.

In Loudoun, a Sterling Middle School teacher was accused of being drunk in a classroom yesterday with students present, the Loudoun County Sheriff's Office said.

Mary Ann Livoti, 56, of Hamilton was charged with being drunk in public, a misdemeanor, after school personnel noticed that she appeared to be intoxicated and called authorities before 11 a.m., sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell said. Livoti was arrested and put in jail, authorities said.

Livoti, a reading specialist, was placed on administrative leave, county schools spokesman Wayde B. Byard said. "Every school is an alcohol-free zone, and it does not matter if you are a student or a teacher," he said.

Livoti was to be released from the Loudoun adult detention center jail after she was deemed to be sober, Troxell said. The case will be reviewed by the Loudoun commonwealth's attorney to determine whether further charges are warranted, he said.

Byard said Livoti first worked for the Loudoun school system from 1978 to 1982. She returned in 1998 to take a job at Aldie Elementary School, and she joined Sterling Middle School in 2000.

Byard declined to comment on any interaction Livoti might have had with students while she was allegedly intoxicated. "I don't want to compromise the investigation," he said.