SCHOOL COP ARRESTS SEVEN

Four PHS Students Charged For Fleeing, Three For Drugs

PORTAGE | Police arrested seven Portage High School students this
week -- three on drug charges and four on charges that they ditched
class and then fled from police.

A total of 39 students have now been arrested at the Portage schools
since Cpl. Troy Williams became school resource officer on Jan. 1.

"I'm hoping we are laying the groundwork for next year because we're
not going to stop," Williams said.

The fleeing arrests were made Monday afternoon after Williams
spotted four students walking on the access road leading north from
the high school to a subdivision. The students, who were ditching
class, fled on foot but Williams said he found them hiding together
near a shed in the subdivision.

One of the students, a sophomore male, was taken to the Juvenile
Detention Center because he was already on home detention from prior
offenses. The other students, freshmen girls, were released to their parents.

The drug arrests were made Tuesday morning after a teacher said he
caught a female student passing a prescription drug to another female student.

The girl who accepted the pill was arrested on a drug possession
charge. The girl accused of passing the pill possessed two more
pills and ingested three other pills, police said. She was medically
cleared at a hospital and was arrested on a charge of drug
possession with the intent to deliver. She told police she got the
pills from a male student in the school's commons area before the
bell rang. The male student was arrested on a drug dealing charge.

All seven arrested juveniles face school sanctions.