SCHOOL DRILL TURNS UP REAL DRUGS, WEAPONS

BRADENTON -- With the recent rash of school shootings fresh on his
mind, Manatee High School Principal Jeff Asher wanted to see how
well his staff would respond if there was a weapon on campus.

So he came up with a mock scenario -- aided by about two dozen
uniformed officers -- about a student bringing a gun on campus, and
decided to find out. But Thursday morning's drill quickly turned
real, with police arresting four students for drug and weapons possession.

"I knew right away something was going on," said sophomore Destiny
Dawson. Other students said wild rumors -- including that someone
had been abducted or killed -- spread throughout the school.

In all, police searched about 200 students and 300 cars in the hourlong drill.

School and police officials would not release the details of the
students' arrests, except to say they had marijuana and knives. The
students were brought to the juvenile assessment center and will
face the appropriate consequences, Asher said. Drug sweeps
and security drills have become common on high school campuses. In
the wake of the recent school shootings, some other schools in the
region offered campus security officers additional training or
locked their classrooms.

But the response at Manatee was more extreme.

Shortly after school started in the morning, at least two dozen
police cars surrounded the campus. Police randomly evacuated 10
classrooms, and officers escorted students away to search them.
Drug-sniffing dogs checked cars and classrooms.

Throughout the drill, teachers and students had no idea what was going on.

"We made it very realistic to see how we might handle a critical
situation," Asher said. "This showed us what we do well and what we
need to improve."

Asher said all of the students not involved in the drill continued
their class work as normal.

But his students tell a different story. As they heard the chaos of
the drill outside their classrooms, students grilled their teachers
for information and spread wild rumors to their friends in other
classes via cell phone text messages.

"One girl told me 'code yellow' meant either someone killed
themselves or someone was abducted," said Priscilla Balboa, 15. "At
first I thought it was true."

The buzz was even hotter in the portable classrooms away from the main school.

"People were sending texts that there was a toxic spill and we
couldn't leave the classroom," said Anthony Bennett, a football
player at the school.

Despite the confusion, Asher said the drill was an important
indicator of how well his school would respond in an emergency --
even if it was a little extreme.

And while the fake drill did net some very real drugs and weapons,
Asher himself played down the severity of the arrests, considering
the school has more than 2,200 students.

"Only four had any drugs," he said. "That's a pretty small percentage."

Staff writer Michael A. Scarcella contributed to this story.