DRUGS FORCE TOUGH DECISIONS, RESULT IN UNFAIR CONCLUSIONS

It is no big-kept secret that communities across the United States
that battle with illegal drugs find the confrontation is an almost
fruitless task.

Yet there are some who are not afraid to take action, even when doing
the so-called right thing will cost their jobs and professional standing.

Drug use has been romanticized so endlessly in the media and hip hop
culture that it has taken on a perverse icon status. The Mississippi
Delta has not escaped its vile clutches.

And as I see it, critical times demand a drastic response because our
youth need to be protected at all costs, no matter the end result.

In the upscale community of Goose Creek, S.C., Stratford High School
Principal George McCrackin determined that there was an illegal drug
problem present in the school, and he called in the police to conduct
a "drug sweep" in November.

The police raid, captured on the high school's security video tape
system - and witnessed on the network evening news by millions -
showed gun-brandishing police officers placing students on the floor
and rifling through their belongings and lockers in a search for contraband.

None was found.

It is an episode that could have easily happened at a Delta-area
school. Just because no drugs were uncovered doesn't mean illegal
activity was not taking place at the high school.

For the Goose Creek Police Department's role in the drug raid - the
department's first at a public school - officers said they followed
regulations and had monitored students at the high school for several
days before the raid.

"Students were posing as lookouts and concealing themselves from the
(surveillance) cameras," Lt. Dave Aarons said. "We observed
consistent, organized drug activity" inside the high school.

Aarons admitted that about 14 Stratford High School students were
handcuffed - because of their failure to "respond to repeated police
instructions to get on their knees with their hands on their heads."

"I don't think it was an over-reaction," Aarons added.

Nevertheless, some students who endured the aggressive tactics of the
Goose Creek Police Department told a different story.

"The cops burst into the school or the main hallway very aggressively
and started pointing their guns at everyone as if we were criminals,"
said Carl Alexander, a freshman at Stratford.

Another student, senior Troy Richardson said, "It hurts. My sister
still has to go through that school. I don't want her to go through
the same thing. ..."

But in the ensuing months, civil rights activists led by the Rev.
Jesse Jackson of Chicago charged that the police drug raid was
racially motivated because the majority of the students were black -
but conveniently ignored that the video tape showed white students who
were subjected to the search.

Jackson has never allowed the facts to get in the way of an issue he
is obsessed with.

In the midst of the swirling controversy, McCrackin who has been
principal at Stratford High School for some 20 years, resigned on Jan.
5 and will be reassigned to an administrative post within the public
school district, Berkeley County Superintendent J. Chester Floyd said,
who added that Mildred Brevard, a retired assistant principal at
Stratford, will become interim principal.

"He is a very fine man who got caught up in something that was
unfortunate," Goose Creek Mayor Michael Heitzer said. "Whomever takes
his place will have big shoes to fill."

McCracken deserved a better fate, because his only fault was
protecting the health and welfare of the students at Stratford High
School. Then politics and the Reverend Jackson took over.

"I realized it is in the best interest of Stratford High School and of
my students for me to make a change," McCracken said of his reasons
for stepping down.

Meanwhile, Jackson who led protest marches concerning the police drug
raid at Stratford High School, crowed that widespread community
pressure forced McCrackin to exit as principal.

"It's obvious he was encouraged to step down because he has lost his
moral authority," Jackson said. "He is just one actor in this scheme
that humiliated and violated the children."

Jackson should be the last one to espouse moral values when he has
fathered a child outside of his marriage. But when you are the
self-proclaimed leader, righteousness is always up for
interpretation.

And we should not forget that Jackson came to Mississippi in June 2000
in support of allegations that a Marion County teenager had been
lynched. We are still waiting for the country preacher to prove those
allegations. So with Jackson, you always have to consider the source.

Now South Carolina county and state prosecutors are looking into
whether the police over-reacted, and several parents have filed civil
lawsuits in the incident.

Perhaps the Goose Creek Police Department was a little overzealous,
but when there is the spectre that illegal drugs are in our midst,
there should be an aggressive response that the intrusion is not welcome.

Donald V. Adderton is editor of the Delta Democrat Times.