A surprise drug sweep of the Warren County High School parking lot Wednesday resulted in four juvenile citations for illegal drugs and alcohol.
Drug dogs from sheriff’s departments in Warren County and Franklin County were used in the search. WCHS executive principal Tony Cassel says this was the first surprise search of the school year with two or three normally scheduled. He says the faculty parking lot was checked in addition to the student parking lot.
“This sends a message to the community and to our student body that we’re serious about controlling drugs on our campus,” said Cassel. “The dogs they bring are trained to find different drugs. I know some are trained to find marijuana, while others are trained to detect meth.”
School system human resource director Roy Pierce, who chairs the disciplinary board, says he has already been notified of some zero tolerance hearings that will be held in January as a result of Wednesday’s drug search.
Pierce said, as per state law, when a student commits a zero-tolerance offense, he or she is automatically suspended from school for one calendar year. When this punishment is appealed, it is heard by the disciplinary board.
“We can assign them an alternative placement or we can keep them out for one calendar year,” said Pierce, who noted the offense must be extreme to warrant to expulsion from school for an entire year. “These drug sweeps are completely random. We’re not even told about them. I know there are always rumors that we know about them in advance and tip off certain people, but that’s not true.”