Just a drill, citizen

March 3, 2006 8:53 PM

Raid nets one at NKHS[Rhode Island, USA] Detective Lt. Robert D. Desjarlais, of the North Kingstown Police, said that K-9 units from across the state conducted a search of the school for illegal drugs. The search focused on student's lockers and student vehicles that were parked on school grounds. The exercise lasted less than an hour with little to no disruption to the school day. The search was not conducted as a result of any specific complaint involving drugs at the school, but rather as part of a coordinated exercise between the school administration and the North Kingstown Police, Desjarlais said. He said the exercise allowed the school staff and faculty to practice the school's lock-down procedures while at the same time providing a training opportunity for the K-9 teams. A search of the school did not find any illegal drugs, Dejarlais said, but an 18-year-old student was arrested after a small quantity of marijuana was found in her vehicle, which was parked in the student parking lot. Molly O'Brien, of 107 Holly Hills Lane, was charged with one count of misdemeanor possession of marijuana and released with a court summons to appear at a later date, Desjarlais said. Sidereal says: Well, I don't see anything wrong with all this. Sidereal advises: zwire.com likes to throw popups, popunders, 3V1L cookies and rich media ads at you, sorry. Caveat Surfor.
posted by sidereal (20 comments total)

Sidereal laments: I tried so hard, and all my paragraph breaks went away anyways. So long, $5.
posted by sidereal at 8:54 PM on March 3, 2006

Sidereal just pawn in game of Life.
posted by stenseng at 8:57 PM on March 3, 2006

In other news, the NASDAQ closed slightly down at the end of trading today, and a high pressure system is developing to the east, we can expect fine weather for the next few days.
posted by Jimbob at 8:59 PM on March 3, 2006

Life is hard down there in the NK...
posted by SweetJesus at 8:59 PM on March 3, 2006

Sidereal make jub-jub with [more inside].
posted by Gator at 9:04 PM on March 3, 2006

awesome post.
posted by MrZero at 9:05 PM on March 3, 2006

Sidereal relocates to Spankville, wears firstpost albatross in shame.
posted by sidereal at 9:09 PM on March 3, 2006

gotta be tough dealing with drug...
cannot let the students touch these dangerous stuff, otherwise their life will be gone!
posted by lumcc at 9:11 PM on March 3, 2006

totally support the cooperation between schools and the police force... both parties must really work hand in hand to fight drugs issue. Gotta protect our innocent children from getting involved in these dangerous stuff!
posted by lemonlaw at 9:17 PM on March 3, 2006

In all seriousness, what was your point, Sidereal?
posted by shoepal at 9:19 PM on March 3, 2006

They used to do this at my school every year or so, maybe twice a year. I live in the middle of nowhere and my school had no problems with crime. Drug use isn't any worse than neighboring areas. Just something they do to keep themselves busy.

I personally don't feel this is the right thing to do (then again, I'm against criminalization all around) but when you're at school you subject yourself to a lot of authority and that's just how it goes. Searching the cars is less acceptable than the lockers though, in my opinion.

All in all, like I said, this is just something schools around the country routinely do to show that something is being done to save these poor kids from the evils of reefer madness (tongue firmly in cheek).
posted by rob paxon at 9:20 PM on March 3, 2006

This also happened at my school yearly, but never resulted in any busts. It did, however, result in many scratched-up car doors, and interesting 8th period classes, as those who had nervously swallowed the contents of their zip-lock baggies earlier in the day tried very unsucessfully to keep things together.
posted by slhack3r at 9:29 PM on March 3, 2006

I'm just glad that all of metafilter now has Molly O'Brien's home address. This post would not have been complete without it. To be honest, I have been looking for a young stalking subject of questionable morals for ages! Thanks siderail!
posted by aburd at 9:31 PM on March 3, 2006

what was your point, Sidereal?

I am disturbed by what I see as capricious invasions of people's everyday lives by hostile entities. I share this news item to see what others think.

Prebuttal:

Capricious: The search was not conducted as a result of any specific complaint.

Invasion: I work for an employer whose employee manual states specifically: "You have no reasonable expectation of privacy - your desk and your computer workstation may be searched at any time without prior reason". I agree to these terms, with my employer.

Dogs: I love dogs. I especially love working dogs, K-9 dogs, rescue dogs, retirement friend dogs. Trained K-9 dogs chuffing around my school suddenly for no reason at all would freak me right the fuck out.

Law: I am not certain that this excercise is constitutionally legal. Public shools are neither businesses nor private property. I simply do not know if this sort of visitation is within the scope of reasonable behavior with regard to the state.

I would like to know what you think.
posted by sidereal at 9:38 PM on March 3, 2006

That's "just how it goes"?

OK, I guess I'm starting to get this. This whole "Constitution" thing was a scam, right? I was the only one who ever believed in it for a moment, I suppose. All the rest of you got this lesson in high school and that's why you're so well prepared for today's reality.
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 9:38 PM on March 3, 2006

Why would you be concerned or surprised about this,when (as I've been told) US public schools have fucking metal detectors installed?
posted by Jimbob at 9:41 PM on March 3, 2006

Sidereal, they did the same thing at my school in the late '80s and early '90s, so it isn't exactly a recent constitutionally violating activity.
posted by shoepal at 9:56 PM on March 3, 2006

Great, so they arrested the one normal kid in the entire school.
posted by Afroblanco at 10:00 PM on March 3, 2006

In other news, there are schools that don't let you smoke cigarettes, even if you legally can, on their property. I'm not surprised that doing something illegal on school property doesn't go down too well, either.
posted by booksandlibretti at 10:01 PM on March 3, 2006

Silly sidereal- civil rights aren't for kids!

Seriously, they should stop busting kids for the contents of their cars, as the charges often get thrown out as unconstitutional when challenged, iirc. As, of course, they should, as it is.

But hey, that's how it goes.
posted by obloquy at 10:05 PM on March 3, 2006