BAKERSFIELD - A high school chemistry teacher has been arrested on charges that he made methamphetamine at a local high school.
Jeff Scheidemantel, 32, of Bakersfield was arrested Saturday, according to Bakersfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. Greg Terry.

Scheidemantel is a chemistry teacher at Shafter High School. He was arrested after a joint methamphetamine task force learned he had used the Internet to order red phosphorus from an overseas source, according to the Bakersfield Police Department.

"Red phosphorus is a necessary, critical element essential to the manufacture of methamphetamine," according to a BPD statement.

"Officers executed a search warrant at Scheidemantel's residence and high school chemistry lab," the statement said.

"Several recipes describing different ways to manufacture methamphetamine, computer equipment storing the same or similar information, and several firearms were seized from his residence," the statement says.

The county's emergency meth lab team "was sent to Shafter High School and they located a cache of precursor chemicals necessary for manufacturing methamphetamine," the statement said.

"A quantity of chemicals was located in Scheidemantel's classroom, indicating he had engaged in a manufacturing effort at the school," it said.

Police say they aren't sure when the meth was made and who was present, nor do they have an idea what kind of danger this posed to students at the school.

What they do know is Scheidemantel was in the initial stages of mixing chemicals in a ventillation hood.

A district spokesman said Scheidemantel is on paid administrative leave, and said he started teaching with the Kern High School District in 2003, worked the school year, and then left for two years.

He began teaching for the district again at Shafter High School in 2006.

The district didn't know what kind of danger the students may or may not have been in, nor have they sent anything home to parents yet.