Newsbrief: ACLU Sues Detroit Over School Drug Raids 6/18/04 The Michigan American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the city of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools last week, charging that police and security guards on drugs and weapons sweeps unjustly frisked students, lined them up against walls, and searched their bags. The lawsuit claims that the district and the city subjected the students to unannounced, unreasonable and unwarranted searches. In its filing, the ACLU pointed to searches conducted this year at Mumford High School, where no weapons or drugs were found. Searches were also conducted at Pershing and Murray-Wright high schools, the lawsuit said. Michigan ACLU director Kary Moss told the Detroit Free Press the suit was filed "reluctantly and only after [we] tried without success to persuade the school district to abandon its policy of conducting sweeps -- mass, indiscriminate searches that are unconstitutional in Detroit public schools." The school district remained firm in support of its mass search policy. "That would be totally ridiculous for the court to ban us from having the opportunity to conduct weapons sweeps in our buildings," said the district's general counsel, Anthony Adams. "We have an obligation to make sure our kids are safe." Besides, he added, the district tells the kids to expect random searches. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/342/motown.shtml