DRUG RAIDS, GOOD...AND VERY, VERY BAD

There are good, and reasonable ways to search for drugs in our schools-and
some very, very bad and dangerous ones.

The nation got a look at the bad side this week as videotapes of a Nov. 5
police raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, S.C. aired. The
pictures were ugly, to say the least.

At 6:40 a.m., 14 officers of the local police department entered the high
school. With their weapons drawn and, at times, pointed at students, they
cordoned off the main hallway, then forced students to the floor,
handcuffing any who hesitated. Then drug dogs sniffed. The dogs reacted to
12 backpacks-but no drugs were found. No weapons were found. No charges
were filed. At least yet, and at least not against any students.

That could change, because Ralph Hoisington, a prosecutor who serves that
part of South Carolina, has asked for and got an investigation by the South
Carolina Law Enforcement Division. Charges of police misconduct may follow,
and we think should.

Let us have a dose of reality here. These officers were looking for
marijuana. Though the videotapes appeared to show something like a raid on
an Al-Qaida headquarters, this was about kids who may have had some illegal
dried plants. There was no suspicion of regular weapons, no weapons of mass
destruction, no threat of violence-and absolutely no reason these young
people should have had revolvers pointed in their faces. Drug raids,
unfortunately, have become part of high school life in the United States.
Such events take place with some regularity at Ashe County High School. But
in these cases, the officers keep their weapons holstered, their actions
professional-and the results have been far more positive than those in
Stratford High.

In the Ashe raids, vehicles parked in the school's lot are sniffed by one
or more drug dogs. The dogs also do their work inside the school, with
whole classes getting checked. The process is orderly, with none of the
Rambo-style hysteria exhibited in South Carolina. Students here learn there
are consequences for breaking the law. Students at Stratford High could
have hardly come away from this bizarre incident with much respect for
local law enforcement. That is certainly not a lesson they needed to be taught.

Their school and law enforcement leaders need to make sure some "heads
roll" over this incident. And our leaders need to make sure nothing like
this ever happens in Ashe County.