SCHOOL WON'T RELEASE ALL OF TAPE FROM RAID

Additional footage shows officers pointing guns at students

CHARLESTON - A prosecutor is questioning why school officials are refusing
to publicly release additional surveillance camera recordings from a drug
raid at Stratford High School where police drew their weapons and restrained
students.

Prosecutor Ralph Hoisington said the additional recordings show students
handcuffed in a stairwell for no apparent reason, and at least two officers
pointing their weapons directly at students.

Goose Creek police have said in a report that "several officers unholstered
their weapons and positioned them at the low ready position.

"This was done as more of a defensive precaution ... primarily due to the
unfortunate fact that drugs and money often mean that there is a real
propensity for weapon involvement."

But Hoisington said other tapes show the officers "pointing straight at
students, sweeping the gun across them."

Hoisington, who has seen the tapes that were provided to State Law
Enforcement Division investigators, has refused to prosecute the case
because of a conflict of interest.

He has asked the state attorney general to investigate whether any state
laws were broken when police swept through the school Nov. 5.

No drugs were found and no arrests were made.

Images obtained by WCSC-TV immediately after the raid were aired repeatedly
on national television news programs. Berkeley County school officials
allowed the station to record images from several of the roughly 70 cameras
throughout the school.

The district also allowed The (Charleston) Post and Courier to view some
surveillance recordings.

Now school officials are refusing to release images from certain cameras
that were never shown to reporters but were provided to SLED.

The Post and Courier has asked the Berkeley County School District for
access to all footage delivered to SLED, including images from the camera
aimed at a stairwell.

Hoisington said that footage showed a group of students holding their hands
behind their heads and lying on the ground. "They were being compliant," he
said.

The footage then shows an officer "picking up about six of them, strapping
them and then putting them back down in the same position they were,"
Hoisington said.

In a letter Friday to The Post and Courier, the district declined to release
the materials, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,
which generally prohibits the district from releasing personally
identifiable information about students, and the state Freedom of
Information Act.

The district said the state's FOI law says certain information can be
withheld if information is "of a personal nature" and that disclosure would
"constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy."

Hoisington questioned why district officials would withhold the additional
footage.

"It's already out there," he said of images of the search.

Police and school officials decided to sweep through the school after seeing
suspicious activity on the school's video cameras.

More than 100 students were detained during the search. Using a
drug-sniffing dog, officers and school officials searched students'
belongings.

A couple of weeks after the raid, a group of more than 100 teachers and
students rallied outside Stratford High in support of principal George
McCrackin.

A group of students and parents, meanwhile, are suing school and district
officials, saying their constitutional rights were violated.