MATERIAL GIRL

Education Official Goes on $230K Online Shopping Spree With School Credit Cards

The 48-year-old director of early childhood education and elementary literacy bought 2,462 items from Amazon.

An ex-school administrator in Arkansas has pleaded guilty to using hundreds of thousands of dollars in district funds on retail therapy. Karen James, 48, had previously been Little Rock School District’s director of early childhood education and elementary literacy, a position she had held for nearly a decade, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Her guilty plea to mail fraud came following an investigation that revealed her spending of “$230,635.86 of fraudulent purposes.” With the money, James bought a total of 2,462 items on Amazon, including knitting materials and pet products, prosecutors said. She also spent more than $4,000 on bath rugs and furniture at Wayfair. James will be required to pay the full amount back to the district in restitution. Her unauthorized purchasing habits were carried out on two credit cards she’d been issued, along with a handbook that expressly prohibited their use for personal shopping, to manage the early childhood programs.