Pubdate: Fri, 23 May 2003
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2003 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact:  http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: D. Aileen Dodd
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

SCHOOLS SAY DA AGREED TO POLICY ON DISCIPLINE

Gwinnett County Schools officials Thursday defended handling certain 
marijuana possession cases in-house instead of referring them to the 
district attorney.

They cited a verbal agreement they say gave them the authority to keep 
students from being prosecuted for some misdemeanor drug possession.

Associate Superintendent Don Fielder said the school system and its police 
officers were following the law, and until Wednesday, when District 
Attorney Danny Porter called for disbanding the school police office, the 
district attorney had had nothing but praise for their department. School 
officials said they met with Porter as recently as May 12 to discuss policy.

"This was a meeting initiated by us to reconfirm the practices that have 
been agreed to," Fielder said. "We have worked steadfastly with the DA's 
office in following the protocol. . . . We were reporting to the best of 
our understanding. . . . In the absence of a written agreement, his version 
of that agreement has no more validity than our version does."

After a review of 20 school police incident reports involving drug cases 
Wednesday, Porter said Gwinnett school officials appear to be abusing the 
privileges of that verbal agreement and could be in violation of state law.

Porter said nine out of 20 selected cases, including one in which a student 
attempted to sell drugs in a restroom at Central Gwinnett High, should have 
been referred to his office for possible prosecution. School officials 
Thursday agreed that a mistake was made in that case and that it should 
have been prosecuted.

Today, at a meeting with Gwinnett Schools Police Chief Wendall Wayne 
Rikard, Porter will review school police policies, find out why the drug 
cases weren't referred to his office and ask for evidence to prove his 
office was notified of those drug infractions.

State law requires that the district attorney's office be notified about 
marijuana and controlled substance possession and other illegal 
drug-related activities.

"They claim that they are notifying people in my office. I am searching my 
records and I am going to see their records to see who they are reporting 
it to," Porter said. "Until now, I had no reason to doubt their credibility."

Fielder, who will be at today's meeting with Porter, will seek to put the 
verbal agreement in writing to eliminate confusion.

Porter's office is investigating whether the schools intentionally 
underreported discipline statistics to the state.
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