PRINCIPAL CHARGED WITH CAMPUS COKE DEALING

NEW YORK - A principal known for her good works and tough words
about drug abuse has been charged with running a narcotics ring at her
elementary school.

Delores Hill, 53, was accused at her arraignment Friday of being the
leader of a small drug ring at the Tabernacle Church of God Elementary
School in Brooklyn.

Hill allegedly sold $25 bags of cocaine to an undercover policewoman
on school grounds. She was arrested along with the school nurse, a
janitor and another worker.

Authorities, who shut down the private, 160-student school , said the
defendants dealt drugs to adults behind the scenes while children were
busy in class. But Hill allegedly made one sale while baby-sitting two
infants in her office, said prosecutor Patricia Gatling.

Hill was charged with felony sale and possession of a controlled
substance. She pleaded innocent, and was being held on $250,000 bail.
The maximum sentence for the charges is 25 years in prison. Her
attorney, Frank Paone, would not comment.

The janitor, Steven Donawa, 42, was arrested after he stopped by
Hill's apartment and left carrying 51 bags of cocaine, prosecutors
said. School nurse Patricia Kersey, 41, was charged with participating
in two drug sales. Laverne Prescod, 42, a school counselor, was
charged in one drug sale. All the defendants pleaded innocent.

Hill had been quoted in the past as an outspoken opponent of drug
use.

"There needs to be more drug education, especially for parents," she
told Newsday in 1990. "Our second graders know more about drugs than
some of the parents."