SCHOOLGIRL TRAFFICKER SPARED JAIL

An 18-year-old woman convicted of trafficking cocaine while attending
the exclusive St. Margaret's School for girls will spend the next 18
months on probation.

During that time, the woman, who cannot be named because she was 17 at
the time of her arrest, must live with her mother in Calgary, attend
school or find work, and stay home from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.

Provincial Court Judge E.J. Quantz told the woman he also expected her
to apologize to the principal of St. Margaret's, where annual fees for
some students can top $35,000.

The sentence will give the woman what's known as a "youth history,"
but not a criminal record. She was convicted Sept. 21 of possession
for the purpose of trafficking.

Her arrest came Oct. 14, 2003, after a search of a school locker
yielded just under one kilogram of cocaine, tucked inside a backpack.

The court heard that the locker and backpack belonged to a classmate,
who went to the principal when she became worried about getting into
trouble.

The classmate testified the woman returned with the drugs after
spending the Thanksgiving holiday at her father's home in the B.C.
Interior.

Court heard the woman's father was a drug dealer who had stored the
cocaine under her bed, and that she brought the cocaine back to
Victoria in part out of anger at her father.

Prior to sentencing, defence counsel Dale Marshall called the young
woman's home with her father a disruptive one.

At the age of 16, he said, she'd found herself caring for two
children, aged three months and three years -- the offspring of her
father and two women: an 18-year-old and her aunt, both drug-addicted
and living at the house.

Crown counsel Michael Mark had asked that the woman serve time in
jail, citing the seriousness of selling drugs from a school.

But Judge Quantz said he had sympathy for the convicted woman because
of her difficult upbringing, and was encouraged by her compliance with
strict bail conditions.

"This is not a case which requires custody," said Quantz.

"The road that led this youth to participate in this event was clearly
paved by her father."