CHINA GROVE, N.C. – A North Carolina elementary school teacher and her doctor-husband are facing charges for establishing an elaborate drug-trafficking scheme in which several school employees were given 200 fraudulent prescriptions for an industrial-strength painkiller.

Police say second-grade teacher Abby Walker and her husband, Dr. Orrin Walker, used five school employees to gain access to 25,000 doses of hydrocodone, a painkiller that’s more potent than codeine, ABC News reports.

The pills were being consumed by Dr. Walker and some of the other suspects. No students were involved in the scheme, notes SalisburyPost.com.

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According to the China Grove Police Department, two teachers and three school staff assistants – from various schools – received bogus prescriptions for the drug from Dr. Walker, had them filled, and then turned the pills over to the couple, reports ABC News.

The operation reportedly began in October 2012 and ended this past March when authorities were conducting their investigation.

Three of the suspects worked with Abby Walker at Bostian Elementary School.

Another woman with no apparent connections to a school was also involved in the scheme, bringing the total number of individuals involved in the drug ring to eight. All eight were indicted on felony charges by a Rowan County Grand Jury on Monday.

The Walkers are each charged with trafficking in opiates by possession, while the other six suspects are accused of getting fraudulent prescriptions, SalisburyPost.com reports.

Abby Walker was suspended by the Rowan-Salisbury School System in mid-March; she later resigned.

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Orrin Walker has surrendered his license to the N.C. Medical Board, SalisburyPost.com reports.

One of the three Rowan-Salisbury school employees involved in the drug ring has been suspended from her job without pay. The district is still conducting an investigation into the other employees and has not yet announced their fate.