POT BUSTS NET SUSPENSIONS FOR 21 LAURIE STUDENTS

Some 21 students at Laurie Jr. Secondary School are cooling their heels
outside the classroom this week after being caught in an RCMP drug sting on
grounds just outside school property.

Sixteen students were suspended from classes this week and the remaining
five have been suspended for the rest of the school year because of
previous violations of school policy.

No students were arrested or taken into custody but one non-Laurie youth
was arrested and is facing possible trafficking in marijuana charges, said
RCMP Cpl. Einor Jorgenson.

The RCMP are not pressing charges against the suspended students because it
could put the students in a double jeopardy situation in light of the
suspensions, said Jorgensen.

"We're not looking to rub salt in people's eyes. Hopefully something
positive will come out of this on the part of students, teachers and
parents when they see police taking an active stand on the drug issue," he
said.

Jorgenson said the Cranbrook RCMP have recently been investigating drug use
in general by students in the city and the Laurie investigation arose out
of this.

"We were conducting a criminal investigation, but needed to alert school
officials about students using drugs in the area," he said. Jorgenson
wouldn't release any more information about the week-long investigation,
but the Daily Townsman learned from a source that a video surveillance was
carried out on the area where students were exchanging drugs.

The area is located behind the school on Baker Hill. It's mostly out of
sight of the school and the street, but in view of a number of residences
in the area.

Jorgenson said no one should jump to the conclusion that the drug problem
at Laurie, or Cranbrook schools in general, is worse or better than
anywhere else in B.C.

"It's not small. It's not humongous. It's just there and it can be a
problem." Referring to the large number of suspensions at Laurie, he said,
"the number, while it appears high, has to be taken against drug use that
can happen at any school which makes it not so much in the bigger picture."

Laurie Principal Darrell Goss also downplayed the number of suspensions.
"Drugs are a problem in every school in B.C. and I would like to believe at
Laurie, if anything, it's less. The vast majority of our kids are really
good. They work hard. They do their best and they're not involved with drugs.

"Unfortunately, this happened and we had to deal with it, but we're going
to try to make this as positive as we can."

Goss said the students suspended were both boys and girls, but he did not
know the exact ratio. The ones suspended for a week will return to school
June 5, because June 4 is a professional day, he said. Efforts will be made
to help the students suspended until the end of June complete their
academic subjects so they don't fail the school year, he said.

"The goal of the school system is not to hurt students, but to help them
learn," he said. "We believe they will come back in September and hopefully
they will have learned something about making better choices."

Goss said the parents of the suspended students were notified of what
happened and supported the action the school took. "We needed to address
this behaviour quickly, but also wanted to fully explain the school's
action to the respective parents."

Southeast Kootenay School Board 5 Chairman Rod Joyce said the district's
drug policy is clear and students should know it. And he rejected the
notion that students should think marijuana use is O.K. because of
contemporary society's more liberal attitude towards the drug.

"Whether marijuana is hazardous or not, I simply don't know. But I do know
it's illegal and from that standpoint alone, I don't think there should be
any mixed messages for kids other than don't do it."

Joyce said he thinks school anti-drug programs are working in spite of what
happened at Laurie. "There's an awful lot of peer pressure at this age and
kids want to conform to the mores of the group."

The timing of the suspensions is bound to have an educational impact for
the students, he said. "I'm disappointed that a whole lot of kids will be
missing school at a pretty critical time of the year. But we have policy on
this sort of thing and the kids know where they stand."

Laurie has approximately 520 students in grades eight to 10.