CLARKE CENTRAL LOCKDOWN RESULTS IN STUDENT'S ARREST

Marijuana Charge At High School

Clarke Central High School administrators locked down the school
Monday morning, while police searched for drugs.

As part of an ongoing drug enforcement program, police with three K-9
units searched about a dozen Clarke Central classrooms, arresting a
17-year-old student on a marijuana charge.

Authorities asked students about 9:15 a.m. to vacate one of the
school's classrooms to let drug-sniffing dogs conduct a sweep of
students' belongings.

As students were leaving the class, the 17-year-old dropped two bags
of marijuana into a nearby wastebasket, according to Clarke County
School District police Chief Frank Platt.

"It evidently was in his hand because he threw it in the trash can,"
Platt said.

Police arrested Bobby Smith on a charge of marijuana possession with
intent to distribute and barred him from the school for two years.

Police also searched classes at the school district's punitive
alternative school in the H.T. Edwards Building and uncovered a small
amount of marijuana inside a classroom near an air conditioning vent,
but the drugs did not lead to an arrest, Platt said.

The school district conducts about four drug searches each school
year and instructs school administrators to notify teachers to shut
their doors and keep all students inside classrooms during each
lockdown until it's completed, Platt said.

"This is just part of our ongoing effort to deter students from
bringing drugs to school, and that's the reason for the lockdown," he
said. "It's designed to be as much a deterrent as an enforcement action."