gunhappy cops raid school and turn up nothing

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/11/07/school.raid/index.html

Police, school district defend drug raid

(CNN) --After complaints from parents and students, police in Goose Creek, South Carolina, defended their decision Friday to send a team of officers, some with guns drawn, into a high school earlier this week for a drug raid that turned up no drugs.

The Berkeley School District north of Charleston, South Carolina, also defended its role in the incident, which has triggered outrage among some in the community.

Stratford High School students described Wednesday's incident as frightening.

"They would go put a gun up to them, push them against the wall, take their book bags and search them," Aaron Sims, 14, told CNN affiliate WCSC. "They just came up and got my friend, not even saying anything or what was going to happen. ... I was scared."

Sims said his mother was "a little angry," but his father understood and "thought it was necessary."

Lt. Dave Aarons of the Goose Creek Police Department said the raid, the first the department has done at a school, followed a police investigation into drug activity that began after a student informed school staff about drug sales on school property.

Police monitored video from school surveillance cameras for several days and "observed consistent, organized drug activity," he said. "Students were posing as lookouts and concealing themselves from the cameras."

When the principal saw more of the same suspicious activity on the school surveillance video, he asked for the officers to respond, Aarons said.

On Wednesday, 14 officers went to the school "and assumed strategic positions," he said.

Within 30 seconds, officers had moved to "safely secure the 107 students who were in that hallway," Aarons said. "During that time some of the officers did unholster in a down-ready position, so that they would be able to respond if the situation became violent."

"The school also designated faculty to secure the hallway to keep other students from entering," Aarons said.

Anytime narcotics and money are involved he said there is "the reasonable assumption that weapons will be involved. ... Our primary concern was the safety of the students (and) everyone else involved."
'School had no knowledge that weapons would be drawn'

Aarons said "12 to 14 students" were placed in handcuffs or plastic flexcuffs "due to their failure to respond to repeated police instructions to get on their knees with their hands on their heads," after one of the lieutenants explained to the students what was going on.

A canine unit was brought in and the dog responded positively to 12 book bags, which were then searched by school officials, said David Barrow, secondary school supervisor for the Berkeley School District. But no drugs were found and no arrests were made.

"The school had no knowledge that weapons would be drawn," Barrow said. "We understand students' and parents' and the community's concerns about this particular search. We will work internally and with local law enforcement to be sure these issues are addressed."

Still, he said, the school was concerned about possible drug sales on campus, and believed action was necessary.

Jared Weeks, 14, told WCSC that police were aggressive.

"They kind of pushed us against the wall and started searching us," Weeks said. "I didn't think all that was called for."

Weeks said he was "kind of nervous," but not scared "because I didn't have anything to hide."

He said there are a lot of drugs in the school, but that this sort of raid was unnecessary. "There is certain people that you know sell drugs," he said. "They could have just searched those people."

Aarons said police believe the drug-dealing students were tipped off.

"I don't think it was an overreaction," he said of the raid. "I believe it was one tactical method by which we could safely approach the problem to ensure that everybody was safe."

He said the incident is being reviewed, as is every police operation.
 
Damn, where was the organized drug rings when I was in high school?

More organised than the police it seems:

Police believe the drug-dealing students were tipped off.

But seriously, if you are an American who has voted for a far-right
Christian-fundamentalist President you cant blame anyone but yourself when this kind of thing takes place.
 
More to the point, marijuana, the drug named in the article, in my opinion, would be infinitely less traumatic to a school student compared to the experience of being confronted by a police officer with a drawn gun.

With the pressure of studies and the rate of youth suicide, this is one traumatic experience everyone could do without.
 
I see no reason to draw guns and search students in the hallways. That's just asking for the situation to get violent and chaotic IMO.

When I was in high school they did drug raids with dogs. We never knew it was coming, but it didn't turn chaotic either. They waited until immediately after class change, locked us in the classroom, and police with dogs then searched lockers and each individual classroom. This seems much more logical than these officers approach. Dealing with a small amount of students one classroom at a time makes much more sense than drawing guns on them in the hallway and treating them like criminals.
 
How in the hell do high school students get tipped off that somethin like this is going to happen?
Do the officers announce it to the school officials beforehand, so it's not a total surprise?
 
ShAdEs0fGrAy said:
When I was in high school they did drug raids with dogs.

ShAdEs0fGrAy said:
Dealing with a small amount of students one classroom at a time makes much more sense than drawing guns on them in the hallway and treating them like criminals.

You don't consider performing drug raids with dogs as treating the students as criminals?
One of the worst things with our younger generation is that they've been habituated to accept outrageous law enforcenment tactics and the lack of our personal privacy.
 
craig420 - In a sense it is, but my point is that the raid performed in this specific situation seemed very unorganized, there are much safer ways to do a drug raid in a school.

As far as the personal privacy thing goes, not that I agree completely with the practice, but a students personal privacy is checked at the door of the school and they know that. A school has the right to perform a search of any student and that's not something they hide from them, it's a known fact.
 
Morrison's Lament said:
The video was apparently pretty intense, there was a link to it somewhere on Overgrow.

--- G.

It wasn't that bad. Just a bunch of posturing cops shoving kids around and waving guns.
If I went to that school I'd be laughing my ass off, that is if I wasn't holding drugs.

Leave the dope at home kids, shadesofgrey is right, a student in America has less rights then a convicted criminal in prison. Be careful!
 
They did drug searches when I was in school. As posted above, all they did was lock everyone in their rooms while they swept the hallways with the drug dogs. Never caused any problems, we just all hung out until they were done. That is waaaayy more ideal than FBI raid style search.

on a side note, I bet 100 bucks those kids who had guns pointed at them went home and smoked a fatty to relax after such a scare ;)
 
This is just way over the top, I understand searching students, even using dogs, because it is well known that you check your rights at the door in US schools.

However, if cops were to rush into the hallways at my old school and point guns at me, let me tell ya, I would be suing that police department for mental anguish in a millisecond. I mean, the speed with which I would be whipping out my cell phone to ring my lawer would blow their hair back. And I bet a person could win such a suit.

I hope someone does sue over this, otherwise this tactic will continue to be used.
 
They would go put a gun up to them, push them against the wall, take their book bags and search them," Aaron Sims, 14, told CNN affiliate WCSC. "They just came up and got my friend, not even saying anything or what was going to happen. ... I was scared

NO ONE should be understanding of this. i would flip the fuck out if some pig treated my son/daughter like this.

also nice title...
 
I was wondering about the whole lawsuit thing as well, having a gun pointed in one's face could surely be worth some money.;)
 
o0 chewie 0o said:
But seriously, if you are an American who has voted for a far-right
Christian-fundamentalist President you cant blame anyone but yourself when this kind of thing takes place.

Awesome quote :)
Spot on
 
It seems to me like ive been told that individual searches with dogs...like letting a dog go right up to a kid is agains the 4th ammendment. At least that was what i was told in school. when they brought in the drug dogs they just locked us in the class rooms and let the dogs sniff the lockers. never in the classroom. Correct me if im wrong but arent drug dogs trained to bite and scratch the suspect if they smell drugs....wouldnt that be assualt? I was also wondering about the guns in kids faces...i was also told that cops cant pull guns unless suspects do or attack?
 
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