The former business manager of Oilfields High School in Black Diamond has been charged for allegedly doing drugs with two male students and then having sexual contact with them.

Police laid charges last week against a woman following a six-month investigation into the charges. Officers reviewed an extensive number of phone calls and text messages between the accused and the victim.

The case was sent to a special Crown prosecution team in Calgary that deals solely with sex crimes. They reviewed the case and agreed charges should be laid.

Word of the investigation leaked last spring, however police could only confirm that there were complaints made to RCMP.

Const. Tom Christie said the investigation revealed two teenage students had sexual contact with the woman. One incident occurred in a home and the other in a vehicle.

Christie said the woman shared marijuana with the boys and in one case asked the victim to touch her and in the other case both touched the male and asked to be touched. Neither of the boys was physically hurt during the meetings, Christie said.

The woman was not exchanging drugs for sex acts, he added, but did provide them with marijuana during the encounters.

Police say to date only two boys have come forward, but they are appealing to anyone who may feel victimized or knows anything about these situations to come forward.

Foothills School Division superintendent Jim McLellan said a letter was sent home to parents in June when media reports brought the situation to parents attention.

The letter advised parents that an investigation was ongoing and anyone needing counseling or support could receive it at the school. McLellan said he did not hear any concern from parents and said the letter likely addressed their worries.

The school division’s top priority was to cooperate with police and ensure all their students were taken care of, said McLellan.

“It’s a terrible thing, but we have to focus on the work that we do to ensure students are safe,” he said.

The woman in question was a business manager at the school for seven years, McLellan said, and had worked at a High River School for one year prior. She handled the school’s budget and did accounting work.

She resigned in June, McLellan said.

The division screens people for a criminal record, McLellan said, adding situations like this cause officials to take a look at their hiring and retention practices to ensure they are sound.

Tanya Marie Cosette, 39 of Black Diamond, is charged with sexual exploitation by a person in a position of trust or authority touch victim for a sexual purpose, two counts of sexual exploitation by a person in a position of trust or authority to invite or counsel victim to touch another person, luring a child, one count of communicating with person under 18 for the purposes of obtaining a sexual service and trafficking in a substance held out to be cannabis.

She will appear in Okotoks Provincial Court on Friday.

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