Pubdate: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA) Copyright: 2009 Athens Newspapers Inc Contact: http://www.onlineathens.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535 Author: Ryan Blackburn Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) CLARKE CENTRAL LOCKDOWN RESULTS IN STUDENT'S ARREST Marijuana Charge At High School Clarke Central High School administrators locked down the school Monday morning, while police searched for drugs. As part of an ongoing drug enforcement program, police with three K-9 units searched about a dozen Clarke Central classrooms, arresting a 17-year-old student on a marijuana charge. Authorities asked students about 9:15 a.m. to vacate one of the school's classrooms to let drug-sniffing dogs conduct a sweep of students' belongings. As students were leaving the class, the 17-year-old dropped two bags of marijuana into a nearby wastebasket, according to Clarke County School District police Chief Frank Platt. "It evidently was in his hand because he threw it in the trash can," Platt said. Police arrested Bobby Smith on a charge of marijuana possession with intent to distribute and barred him from the school for two years. Police also searched classes at the school district's punitive alternative school in the H.T. Edwards Building and uncovered a small amount of marijuana inside a classroom near an air conditioning vent, but the drugs did not lead to an arrest, Platt said. The school district conducts about four drug searches each school year and instructs school administrators to notify teachers to shut their doors and keep all students inside classrooms during each lockdown until it's completed, Platt said. "This is just part of our ongoing effort to deter students from bringing drugs to school, and that's the reason for the lockdown," he said. "It's designed to be as much a deterrent as an enforcement action." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom