STATE INVESTIGATES SCHOOL DRUG SWEEP

Police Drew Guns, Cuffed Students In Goose Creek, But Found No Drugs

'This is supposed to be a free country, not a police state.'

Danny Partin | parent

GOOSE CREEK (AP) - State police are investigating why officers charged into
a crowded high-school hallway with guns drawn in a drug sweep.

Videotape from Stratford High School surveillance cameras showed students
sitting on the floor Wednesday while officers with guns drawn looked for drugs.

Charleston-area prosecutor Ralph Hoisington asked the State Law Enforcement
Division to look into possible police misconduct in the operation.

He called for the probe Friday after consulting with Berkeley County
Sheriff Wayne DeWitt.

No drugs were found in the early morning sweep that included 14 officers
and one drug dog. Some students were cuffed during the raid.

"I don't think there's anything wrong at all with law enforcement
addressing a problem in a high school, but I have serious concerns about
the need for restraining students and drawing weapons," Hoisington said. "I
don't want to send my child to a school and find out guns are drawn on
them. I certainly don't want them hogtied as part of a sweeping investigation."

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, Goose Creek police Lt. Dave
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."

Aarons said the guns were drawn as "a matter of officer safety."

"I don't think it was an overreaction," he said. "Anytime you have
qualified information regarding drugs and large amounts of money, there's a
reasonable assumption weapons are involved."

Police handcuffed students who failed to "respond to repeated police
instruction," Aarons said.

The scene captured on the school video surveillance cameras was played much
of the day on national news channels.

"I'm absolutely outraged," said Danny Partin, whose stepson attends
Stratford but was not in the hallway during the search. "This is supposed
to be a free country, not a police state."

Parent Nathaniel Ody went to the police department Friday afternoon to file
a complaint. He said his son, a senior basketball player, was pulled from
another part of the school Wednesday and placed in the hallway in
restraints. He said his son was compliant but was handcuffed anyway.

"I'm appalled," he said. "To just take a bunch of innocent kids and put
them in restraints, and then not even find anything, is ridiculous."

Sweeps happen periodically at high schools, at principals' request, but
this is the first time restraints were used, said Dave Barrow, supervisor
for Berkeley County high schools.

"We understand students, parents and community concerns about this
particular search," Barrow said.

Some area residents sympathized with the officers. "I'm sure students were
frightened, but the harm they're in with drug dealers is far greater than
the police coming in," said Goose Creek resident Judy Watkins. "I trust
them to do what's right. I appreciate what they did."

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