ARMED RAID AT STRATFORD HIGH WENT TOO FAR

We Support the goal of a drug-free environment for the teen-agers
studying in high schools around our state. We back the parents,
educators and law enforcement officers who strive each day for an
orderly, lawful and safe school environment. So there is no way we can
back last week's armed incursion into Berkeley County's Stratford High
School.

If you think the word incursion represents hyperbole, then you have
not seen the striking, videotaped images of Goose Creek police
officers, guns drawn, prowling Stratford's main hall. One officer is
plainly visible aiming the barrel of his gun directly at students.

It was an extreme, unnecessary gesture, unwarranted by the principal's
description of suspected drug activity in the area. It is fortunate
for all the young people involved that a videotaping system was in use
at the school on this particular day, as it clearly recorded a group
of adults who were out of line.

There were more than 100 young people in the school hallway. Common
sense says some of them have never had anything to do with illegal
drugs. But they and their peers will never forget the unfair taint
that comes from being cuffed, forced to the floor and threatened with
a gun at 6:45 in the morning. Some of these kids were probably just
plain scared of what could happen - at the hands of the police, by the
way, not at the hands of some as-yet-to-be-caught drug dealer.

Concerns have been raised that this raid was racially motivated, and
that question must be explored. The majority of the students targeted
arrive on early buses that pick up in predominantly black
neighborhoods. School administrators and police should not mete out
discipline on these students any differently than they would
teen-agers who drive themselves to school in a brand-new SUV. Anyone
who thinks illegal drug use is confined to the economically
disadvantaged, or to one racial group, is sadly mistaken.

Subsequent statements by the police did not help their cause. They
attempted to downplay the overzealous brandishing of guns. Two
brothers who were searched - and found to have no drugs - told The
Post and Courier that when the ordeal was over, police told students
that innocent bystanders who felt aggrieved should blame students who
bring illegal drugs to school. Apparently, these officers missed the
part of character education that stresses that we are all responsible
for our own behavior. Those who wear a badge are not exempt.

Schools have the legal authority to search anyone who comes onto their
property, as well as those persons' belongings and areas such as
student lockers. These teen-agers who arrived at school on a bus
certainly weren't going anywhere fast. They could have been searched
without the excessive force employed. In addition, the search could
have better targeted specific individuals whose actions had raised
suspicions of drug sales or use.

As it unfolded, this raid has undermined public and parental
confidence in the ability of schools and law enforcement to exercise
authority sensibly. Once lost, such confidence is difficult, if not
impossible, to regain. That is too bad. Because now, more than ever,
we need parents, educators and police working together to ensure a
safe, drug-free environment for all our young people.