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