Parents demanding answers in Stratford High School drug sweep
Wednesday November 12, 2003 10:32am
link

Goose Creek, SC (AP) - Parents at a Berkeley County School Board meeting want accountability for an incident last week in which police officers charged into a crowded high school hallway with guns drawn in a drug sweep. Some parents say Stratford High School Principal George McCrackin should resign for inviting police into the school

Sharon Smalls says she's upset by the raid at the Goose Creek school

Smalls says her 14-year-old child was slammed to the ground with a gun to his head

Board Chairwoman Harriet Dangerfield says Smalls has a right to be angry.

Answers elusive in school raid
Probe under way into drug sweep in Goose Creek where police drew guns, restrained students
By LAUREN LEACH, Staff Writer

The State (SC), link
Posted on Sun, Nov. 16, 2003

GOOSE CREEK — Students crouch or lie facedown on the hard floor, their hands restrained behind their backs by clear plastic handcuffs. Police, with weapons drawn, walk around and over them, while drug-sniffing dogs stick their noses in and out of book bags.

The video images from the Nov. 5 drug sweep at Stratford High School have played over and over on national television since a school official released the tape to the media the next day.

Now, with a state police investigation under way and people from around the country looking on, it still isn’t clear how this could have happened.

Goose Creek police aren’t answering questions about whether they overreacted. Neither is the city’s mayor, who is the police chief’s boss.

The school’s principal, George McCrackin, said he called in police to take care of a “drug problem.” He said he had no idea they would come in with guns unholstered.

Still, he didn’t intervene once he realized what was going on. Instead, he stood watching, along with assistant principals, teachers and coaches as the 45-minute search progressed. The dogs reacted to 12 book bags, but no drugs were found.

In a letter to Stratford parents, McCrackin said he was “surprised and extremely concerned when I observed the guns drawn. However, once police are on campus, they are in charge.”

The State Law Enforcement Division might or might not back up his position. The agency’s investigation is expected to wrap up in several weeks.

At least one parent whose child wasn’t involved said she is putting her son in another school. Lisa Brown, front desk manager at the Days Inn in nearby Ladson, said her son, a freshman, thinks the sting targeted African-American students.

“He’s tired of being stereotyped,” she said.

Another mother, whose son was involved in the sweep, said she is speeding up their move to California. Tina Penn’s 15-year-old son, Cedric Penn Jr., was in the hallway when police ran inside and ordered everyone down.

“I froze up. I didn’t know what to do. I fell on the ground. Everybody thought it was a terrorist attack,” he said.

On his knees and facing the wall, the teen said a gun was pointed at his head. “I think it was racially motivated,” he said.

WHO’S ACCOUNTABLE?

That is not the case, said Pam Bailey, executive director of the Berkeley County Schools office of public relations.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” she said.

School officials said they saw suspicious activity taking place in the same spot at the same time of day over four days. That’s why that hallway was targeted, she said.

Stratford, the largest of six high schools in the Berkeley district, has 2,700 students. It’s designed to have 1,800 students. Seventy percent of the school’s students are white; 20 percent are black.

Penn, who said he wasn’t aware of any drug activity at the school, told his mother what happened when he arrived home that day. She had a hard time believing something like that had happened at school. Then she saw the video on the news.

“My heart just dropped. I felt so sick,” Tina Penn said.

Her son is in counseling because of the incident, she said, and the family is planning to move to California at the end of the month, rather than waiting until the end of the school year as originally planned. Tina Penn said her husband, who is working in California, was appalled when he heard the news and urged her and the children to “move now.”

“The principal needs to be held accountable,” she said.

Others can’t say enough good things about McCrackin. The Stratford High Student Council sent a letter to the Berkeley County School Board in support of the principal. Describing him as a “dedicated, selfless individual,” the students said he puts them first.

“When asked why, on his school walkie-talkie, his number was 2, he said that this was because his students were number one,” the letter stated. “He would not do anything to endanger his students or do anything without probable cause.”

On Friday, students and teachers held a rally outside the Crowfield Boulevard school. They held signs encouraging motorists to honk if they supported McCrackin.

Junior Lauren Shull, whose mother teaches at Stratford, said she stands behind the actions of the school and the police.

“They’re trying to keep the school safe,” the 16-year-old said.

NOT HERE, CERTAINLY

A sign outside the Stratford High School entrance proclaims the Knights as the 1999 Division I AAAA state football champions. That’s one of the many honors Berkeley County’s largest high school has earned.

The school has a nationally ranked speech and debate team, a nationally ranked academic team and received the Governor’s Award for Service Learning.

“Stratford High School is one of the outstanding schools in the state,” said Chester Floyd, who has been Berkeley County schools superintendent for six years.

Since the sweep, it has also been one of the most talked about schools in the country. The school system’s district office has fielded calls from national media and talk show hosts, including Oprah Winfrey and Montel Williams.

According to Floyd, who was superintendent of Lexington 1 from 1988 to 1997, the principal was not in the hallway when the sweep began but signaled police when students arrived there. When the principal and other administrators got to the scene, the raid was well under way.

McCrackin last week declined a request for an interview.

In his letter to parents, McCrackin said “at no time was there any indication to me that the requested search would involve any police officers having guns drawn ‘at ready.’ Police have never drawn weapons in any search prior to Wednesday.”

That doesn’t satisfy Stratford senior Amber McCutcheon, who said the school has been forever tarnished by the raid.

“We were known for our football team. Now, we’re known for the cops pointing guns at the students,” said McCutcheon, 17.

McCutcheon and her friend, Tia Scott, also a senior, sat on a sidewalk after school Wednesday shaking their heads.

“It was outrageous,” said Scott, 18, who added she was searched when she arrived at school Nov. 5. “Is it going to happen again?”

‘A MUCH DIFFERENT APPROACH’ IN FUTURE

Routine drug searches are bound to happen, Floyd said, but he wants a different method the next time.

“I hope we never have a situation with a number of officers unholstering their guns unless they’ve seen another gun pointed at them or the students,” he said.

“I don’t have all the answers yet,” he said. “I don’t want law enforcement to jeopardize their health, but I don’t want students traumatized if they don’t have to be, as well.”

Still, he said, “state law requires that if you suspect illegal activity on campus, you must report it to law enforcement.”

Students were going into restrooms, while other students were posing as lookouts, Floyd said.

Police “felt there was enough consistent activity to warrant the level of search that was conducted. They felt they had probable cause,” schools spokeswoman Bailey said.

Police said they aren’t commenting because of the SLED investigation. Chief Harvey Becker said Mayor Michael Heiztler had forbidden him from commenting.

“If (McCrackin) had known the guns were going to be drawn, he would not have asked for the assistance,” Bailey said.

Floyd, the superintendent, said the guns were “an absolute surprise to everyone.”

In Goose Creek and across the country, it is routine to send in drug-sniffing dogs to do unannounced drug searches on school campuses, Floyd said.

“If we think drugs and alcohol aren’t present, we’re probably being very naive,” he said. “Students and parents expect us to have a safe environment. We want to be proactive.”

Floyd said the kind of raid that happened Nov. 5 isn’t likely to happen again. “We will have a much different approach than having students restrained and guns drawn,” he said.

Floyd said he’s eager to see the results of the SLED probe.

AN EXPLANATION? ‘I’VE SEEN NONE’

If state laws are broken, Solicitor Ralph Hoisington of Charleston would be the prosecutor. He has a lot of questions.

“I’ve been waiting on a reasonable explanation of why the police officers had to pull guns. I’ve seen none,” he said.

Hoisington said he watched the videotape and noticed a female police officer was making a video of her own of the incident.

He asked police to turn over a copy and said he plans to watch it early this week.

He also called the U.S. attorney’s office and alerted them to the incident, in case any federal charges arise. The U.S. attorney’s office, in such cases, notifies the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department’s civil rights division.

At a meeting Wednesday night in North Charleston, officials with the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union organized a committee to study, among other issues, what happened at Stratford.

“We will not let this issue die. We are getting our data together and will take this to the Justice Department,” said Mary Ward, president of the North Charleston branch of the NAACP.

As for the school district, Floyd said he and other administrators are working as hard to create a safe environment for the students, preferably without another drug raid with guns involved.

This was a first for him, he said.

“I like being first in many things, but I don’t want to be first in this. I don’t mind leading the pack, but for this you don’t want to be number one.”

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