Landmark Settlement Reached in Notorious School Drug Raid Caught on Tape: Black Kids Rounded Up

Although only 22% of the school's 2,700 students are Black, 70 out of the 105 students searched and detained were Black. [more ]

The American Civil Liberties Union today applauded a landmark settlement reached this week in its lawsuit challenging police tactics in the high-profile drug raid of Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina. The settlement sets a new standard for students’ constitutional rights to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. Absent a warrant, police will now need either to have probable cause and pressing circumstances or voluntary consent in order to conduct law enforcement activity on school grounds – effectively granting Goose Creek students the essential privacy rights enjoyed by all Americans. “Police must now respect the fundamental freedoms of Goose Creek students,” said Alyse Bertenthal, an attorney with the ACLU Drug Law Reform Project. “The settlement properly raises the bar for student rights, and should serve as a model for every school in the country.” The November 5, 2003 police raid of Stratford High School was recorded by both the school’s surveillance cameras and a police camera. The tapes show students as young as 14 forced to the ground in handcuffs as officers in SWAT team uniforms and bulletproof vests aim guns at their heads and lead a drug dog to tear through their book bags. The ACLU represents 20 of the nearly 150 students caught up in the raid. The raid was initiated by the school’s principal at the time, George McCrackin, who resigned shortly after the tapes surfaced on national television. The raid was authorized based on the principal’s suspicion that a single student was dealing marijuana. The raid was carried out despite the suspected student being absent at the time. No drugs or weapons were found during the raid and no charges were filed. The raid took place in the early morning hours when the school’s hallways are predominantly populated with African American students whose buses arrive before those of their white classmates, which largely travel from different neighborhoods. White students began to arrive during the raid and witnessed the hostile roundup and detention of their African American peers. As 16-year-old Joshua Ody, one of the students caught up in the raid, put it, “I felt like I had less rights than other people that day.” [more]