CRACK AGAIN? COPS QUESTION 1ST-GRADER

Police yesterday questioned a first-grader and an eighth-grader to
determine how 24 bags of suspected crack cocaine wound up inside
their North Philadelphia elementary school.

The drugs were found in a hallway at the Hartranft School, 8th and
Cumberland streets, about 11:30 a.m., marking the third incident
this year of young children bringing suspected drugs to class.

According to school district spokesman Vincent Thompson, each of the
students questioned said a plastic bag containing baggies of the
drug belonged to the other.

The boys had met in the hallway as the first-grader was coming from
lunch and the older boy, 14, was cutting class, Thompson said.

A noontime aide standing in the hallway noticed a plastic bag on the
floor and walked over to the boys, each of whom said it had fallen
out of the other's pocket.

The students were taken to the principal's office and police were
called. Police interviewed the first-grader at the scene, with his
parents present, and he was sent home, Thompson said. A parent
arrived and took the eighth-grader out of school at 1 p.m.

The first-grader was to be allowed back in school today but the
older student won't be allowed back until the investigation is
complete, Thompson said.

He said no other students were exposed to the drugs.

Schools spokesman Fernando Galliard said he didn't have exact
figures but that the number of young children bringing drugs into
school was "probably the same number" this year as last.

He said there were "probably one or two cases" last year.

"It is unusual to find this type of case in an elementary school, in
regards to holding multiple bags of controlled substances," he added.

The youngest child involved in recent months wasn't even in school
yet - he was a 2-year-old who showed up at his Logan day-care center
with 11 baggies of crack cocaine in his pocket last Dec. 2.