Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jan 2006
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Contact:  2006 New England Newspapers, Inc.
Website: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)

SWEEP YIELDS NO DRUGS

GREAT BARRINGTON - State and local police found no drugs or evidence 
of  them during a surprise search yesterday at Monument Mountain 
Regional High School, where officers did a sweep of lockers and 
parked cars with a  drug-sniffing dog. Assistant Principal Howard 
Trombley said it was "excellent" that the dogs turned up no drugs, 
paraphernalia or residue. Individuals were not searched. "It was 
time," he said, as he watched a police officer leading a German 
shepherd through the parking lot. "There has been a perception out 
there. ... Some kids say there's dealing going on - we don't know if 
it is at school or in the parking lot. It may be happening off campus."

"We're clean," said another school staffer yesterday. The search did 
not result from a specific investigation, but the results of the 
search should not leave the wrong impression, two sources said 
yesterday. "Kids are being smarter, or using other ways of hiding 
things, or they are not bringing it to school," said a local police 
officer. "We know (the school community) isn't clean."

"I would not interpret this to mean there's no drug problem," said 
Sheela Cleary, director of the South Berkshire Youth Coalition, which 
surveyed local students about risky behaviors last spring.

"Having heard (the search turned up nothing), I don't think for an 
instant that the problem has lessened or changed in the community," 
she said. "It's a community-wide issue, and this is what the 
coalition is focusing on. ... It's no  doubt there are drugs in 
school; but at this day and time, there were not." Principal Marianne 
R. Young could not be reached yesterday for comment, and Great 
Barrington Police Chief William R. Walsh Jr. was also unavailable. 
However, he was at the high school earlier with state police. A 
student survey of middle and high school students at Berkshire Hills 
and Southern Berkshire Regional School Districts, the results of 
which were released  last fall, pointed to drug activity on school 
campuses. That survey and other factors spurred parents and students 
to raise their concerns and comments, said Trombley.

A column written in the Berkshire Record in recent months, 
purportedly authored by a student who wrote about drugs in school, 
upset some students, parents, school staff and community members.

The column angered some students, who responded by making a mocking 
poster, which extracted some of its most egregious accusations, 
parents said. The school was "locked down" after classes began 
yesterday, and parents who saw police cars outside while dropping off 
their children were worried. One parent, who heard about the police 
and dogs at the school, said he was distressed that an emergency was 
under way inside.

"It was alarming," he said in a call to The Eagle. Another parent, 
who asked not to be named, was unhappy with the "overkill" approach, 
calling it a "military-like situation."

"I'm surprised that the school administration hasn't reached out to 
parents to have a conversation, dialogue or something before turning 
to these extreme measures," she said. "I think you should first try 
to deal with it as a community."

Weekly e-mails about school activities and schedules, sent by the 
principal to parents, have not made mention of concern about drugs at 
school, the parent said. She said she dropped her son off late 
yesterday, and he was locked out of the school until police left.

Hallway lockers were searched while school wings were "locked down." 
Students were required to stay in their classrooms.

In the student survey, 25 percent of students reported being offered 
drugs at school. Forty percent reported knowing of the two-year 
mandatory jail term for  dealing drugs on school property or within 
1,000 feet of a school. The survey combined results from both school 
districts and those results were made public. However, results for 
the two individual schools were made available  only to school administrators.

There has also been extensive publicity in the past year about 
controversy sparked by a Great Barrington drug investigation that led 
to the arrests of 18 young people, a number of them Monument Mountain 
students or graduates. Most are facing the mandatory minimum jail 
term if convicted; the charges against them stem from drug sales in 
the Taconic parking lot in Great Barrington, which is within 1,000 
feet of a preschool and the former Searles  Middle School. Marijuana, 
cocaine and illegal pills were allegedly being sold. The Monument 
Mountain police sweep came about at the request of the school and the 
local police department, he said. He did not rule out that some 
students suspected a search at some point.

In the parking lot around 9:30 yesterday, a state police officer with 
a German shepherd search dog circulated among the cars in the parking 
lot where many students park for the school day.

State police who supervised yesterday's search could not be reached 
to discuss the search.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom