Pubdate: Fri, 14 May 2004
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2004 The Baltimore Sun
Contact:  http://www.sunspot.net/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Authors: Jeff Barker and Chris Guy, Sun Staff

SHERIFF TO REVIEW POLICY ON SEARCHES

Kent School Community Troubled by Drug Sweep; Some Students Made To
Disrobe

CHESTERTOWN - The Kent County sheriff said yesterday that his office
was on questionable legal ground when it sent four dogs into the local
high school for a drug search without a warrant, patted down 16
students and ordered two female students to partially disrobe.

"We were acting under what we thought was probable cause, and we still
believe there was probable cause," Sheriff John F. Price IV said of
the search April 16 - the subject of a growing controversy in this
Eastern Shore community.

"At the same time, it was an area that was unclear," Price said. "We
didn't know it was a gray area."

About 250 book bags in 12 Kent County High School classrooms were
scanned by drug-sniffing dogs during the search, the sheriff said. He
said the dogs "alerted" on 18 of the bags, whose owners were asked to
undergo additional searches. Sixteen students were subjected to
"pat-down" searches, while the other two received what the sheriff
would describe only as "more thorough searches."

One of the two, Heather Gore, 15, said yesterday that a female deputy
ordered her to remove her skirt, then lifted her tank top, exposing
her breasts. Gore said she was then told to spread her legs while the
officer checked her underwear.

"I'm still just so embarrassed," Gore said.

Her mother, Patricia Gore, said she would push for a change in policy
regarding searches. "I certainly have a lot of things besides lawyers'
fees I need to spend money on, but my daughter shouldn't have had to
go through all this, and neither should anyone else," the mother said.

Price said a weeklong review of the department's policy concluded that
the deputy might have used poor judgment, but that she did not violate
policy when she searched the girls.

The sheriff said search and seizure "is a very gray area in the
schools for police. There is case law that supports what we did and
there is case law that doesn't support what we did."

Authorities believed students had become wary of searches in school
lockers and had begun stashing illegal drugs in backpacks.

It's not the first time concerns have been expressed on the Eastern
Shore about methods to detect illegal drugs in schools. In 2000,
Talbot County school officials agreed to scrap a drug testing policy
in which students were ordered to provide urine samples that were
tested in front of other students in the school auditorium.

The Kent County search raises serious issues, said Deborah Jeon,
managing attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's Eastern
Shore office.

"I think there is a very significant question as to how the entire
sweep could be consistent with the Maryland regulation prohibiting
investigative searches by a police officer unless there is a warrant,"
Jeon said. The regulations also bar police from searching a student
unless the student is under arrest or believed to be concealing a weapon.

Price said the regulation "governs the school board, it really doesn't
govern law enforcement." Still, he said, "We are probably going to
change how we do things in schools as the result of this."

He said he and his senior staff will meet this morning with Kent
County Schools Superintendent Bonnie C. Ward to review policy. Gordon
Sampson, the high school's principal, was not at the school yesterday
afternoon and could not be reached for comment.

A policy shift regarding the searches would please Donna Bedell, the
mother of Jessica Bedell, who was among the students patted down last
month. "I think we probably do have a drug problem at the school, but
intimidation and illegal searches are not acceptable," Donna Bedell
said.

Jessica Bedell said yesterday that a deputy lifted her skirt during
the search.

A sophomore honor student who plays tennis, Bedell is a member of the
cheerleading squad and vice president of the student council. She said
she has never carried drugs in her backpack.

Bedell said the police drug dogs may have seized on her school bag
because it contained a half-eaten package of Pop Tarts. Price said the
dogs can make mistakes but are usually reliable.

No drugs were found in the search of the book bags, authorities said,
but two students were charged: one with possession of a knife, the
other with possession of marijuana. 
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