DISTRICT SAYS RAID AT SCHOOL JUSTIFIED

Suit Response Partly Blames Students

Students at Stratford High School were partly to blame for any wrongdoing by
police and school officials during November's controversial drug sweep,
attorneys for the Berkeley County School District said in a formal response
to a lawsuit.

The response maintains "any injuries or damages" suffered by the
students ... resulted in part from their "own acts of comparative
negligence, carelessness, recklessness ..."

Asking a federal judge to toss out the suit, the district also denied
that Goose Creek police illegally restrained students and pointed guns
in their faces, violating their constitutional rights.

The students are not entitled to any money because the raid was
"justified at inception and reasonable in scope," the district maintained.

Parents of some students and their lawyers were floored by the
district's stance.

"I don't see why my son should be blamed," said Kim Lynnette Harris,
whose 16-year-old son, Dejohn McKelvey, was in the hallway the morning
of the raid. "He was an innocent bystander, probably like all of the
107 students that were there that day," she said."An absolute
outrage," added Ron Motley, a lawyer coordinating the lawsuit for the
students and families.

He compared the situation to a drunken driver running over someone and
then blaming the pedestrian for getting in the way.

"I can't wait to tell a jury this," he said.

The district's response stems from a federal lawsuit filed in December
by 18 Stratford students and their families.

The lawsuit alleged that Goose Creek police pointed guns at students
and used other illegal search and seizure tactics, violating the
students' constitutional rights. Another federal lawsuit coordinated
by the American Civil Liberties Union also has been filed and makes
similar allegations.

The lawsuit's other main targets, the Goose Creek Police Department
and the town of Goose Creek, have yet to file responses to the court.

More than 100 students were detained during the raid. School and
police cameras captured officers bursting into the school hallway and
ordering students to the floor. An officer with a drug-sniffing dog
searched students' backpacks and belongings, but no drugs or weapons
were recovered.

The incident spawned international headlines, state and federal
investigations, community protests and the recent resignation of
longtime Stratford Principal George McCrackin.

District officials declined to comment Monday, referring questions to
their attorneys.

Duke Highfield, one of the district's attorneys said, "We're not
playing a blame game here. We're simply responding to the allegations
made in the complaint."

The district's 16-page response denied specific allegations by
students that police acted improperly.

For instance, in the lawsuit, Harris's son, Dejohn McKelvey, said he
was reviewing class notes when an officer pointed a gun in his face so
close that he could barely see the gun barrel. The boy said he was
then pushed to the floor and restrained.

In its response, the district acknowledged "only that Dejohn McKelvey
is a student at Stratford High School," and denied his
allegations.

"I'm not happy about the situation," Harris said, adding that she
recently pulled her son out of school because of the disruption the
raid caused. "There were 107 students, and they are going to deny that
they did something wrong? C'mon."

The district's response stated that the students were lawfully
restrained, and that because of this, the district wasn't liable for
any damages.

That prompted Motley to comment: "If you say pointing a Glock at
someone's head is a lawful restraint, then you must have grown up in
Nazi Germany."

The district also maintained:

- - Any injuries suffered by the students were caused by the negligence
"of some other party or parties over whom the defendants had no
supervision or control."

- - That McCrackin didn't plan, order and "execute the
search."

- - Students were partly to blame for what happened and that a jury
should determine a percentage of responsibility and reduce any damages
by that amount.

The school district "may say this is a technical defense, but for the
life of me, I don't know how it helps their arguments," said Jack
Cordray, another attorney for the students.

"They try to teach children to be accountable for their actions, but
when they are called to account, they deny responsibility and point to
others, including children."