[AmsterdamdreamN]

5 High School Students Arrested in Suprise Raid
By Frances Kuo

(ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky., January 21st, 2004, 6 p.m.) -- Police staged a surprise drug raid at Elizabethtown High School and now five students face criminal charges and expulsion. The search by Kentucky State Police was a surprise to students, but was planned by school principal Ruth Sorace. WAVE 3's Frances Kuo has the details.

The surprise drug raid was a month in the making, and the first time Elizabethtown High School had seen anything like it. "There was a lot of tenseness with most of our students," Sorace said. "It's the first time we had done anything that big."

Early Friday morning, January 16, Sorace called the school's 700 students to the gymnasium. They thought they were in for a routine meeting, but they were in for a shock. State troopers were on-hand with drug-sniffing dogs.

"I explained to them that the canine units were in the building, and the reason our school system had made the decision to do that was that we wanted to make our hallways and our classrooms as drug-free as we possibly could."

While the student body was gathered in the gym, five troopers and their canine units were searching for drugs in classrooms, lockers cars in the parking lot.

E-town Senior Mary Katherine Rigby says students were stunned. "You could tell on some of the people's faces, there was panic.

After the two-hour search, two seniors and three underclassmen were arrested for drug possession. Some drugs were found in cars while other contraband had been tossed in trash cans. "A couple of students in the gymnasium, when they knew what was happening, tried to get rid of something," Sorace says.

Sorace says reaction from parents has been positive. Reaction from students has been mixed. "There were a few students who were angry, because maybe a friend had been caught," Sorace says.

Rigby says she wasn't upset about the raid. "I think people have become more aware of how serious these drugs can be, and how more involved kids are and bringing it into school, and how the age just keeps getting younger and younger."

Senior Shannon Smith says "I'm glad it's been done."

On Monday, the school board will decide whether or not the students should be expelled.

While this type of search was a first for Elizabethtown High, Kentucky State Police say such searches are common. They're typically done at high schools, but they've had some requests to search middle schools.

Online Reporter: Frances Kuo

Online Producer: Michael Dever