DRUG RAID A BUST AT STRATFORD HIGH

GOOSE CREEK - An effort to stem a growing drug problem at a Lowcountry high
school netted no illegal narcotics but did get some complaints.

Fourteen officers cordoned off the main hallway of Stratford High School at
6:40 a.m. Wednesday to search for marijuana. No drugs were found.

"Several officers did unholster their weapons in a tactical law enforcement
approach," said Lt. Dave Aarons of the Goose Creek Police Department.

"There was no force whatsoever. Everyone was very compliant," he said.

Search Called Illegal

The way the search was conducted is illegal, said Graham Boyd, director of
the drug policy project for the American Civil Liberties Union. "You
absolutely cannot bring police with guns drawn into a school," he said.

Boyd said police have to have individual students suspected of drug
activity, then any action taken must target those suspects. He said
investigators should have called individual suspected students to the
principal's office to check their bags for drugs.

Raid Caught On Tape

Security camera videotape of the raid was shown on national news channels
Friday.

The only charges stemming from Wednesday's raid involved a ninth-grader who
was charged with filing a false police report after she said an officer
shoved her to the ground during the search, Aarons said. Principal George
McCrackin said he, other school officials and the girl's parent reviewed
video surveillance tapes and determined she wasn't even in that hall at the
time.

McCrackin said he had talked with police about what he called a growing
drug problem at the school.

"Within the last three weeks, there's been an influx of drug activity," he
said. "I've been in this business for 34 years, and I've never seen the
amount of activity we've experienced recently."

Influx Of Drugs

Aarons said he watched school surveillance tapes from four days that showed
students congregating under cameras, periodically walking into a bathroom
with different students and coming out moments later.

During Wednesday's raid, officers and school employees sealed off the main
hallway. There were 107 students in the hallway at the time.

Police told the students to sit on the floor and put their hands out,
McCrackin said. Officers searched only book bags that the police dog
responded to, not students, he said.

About 2,760 students attend Stratford High, the largest school in Berkeley
County and among the largest statewide. Two officers work in the school
full time.