Three students expelled for suspicion of marijuana possession
January 26, 2010
By Chantelle Lusebrink
Three Liberty High School students were expelled for possession of what police and district officials say they suspect is marijuana on Jan. 13, 20 and 21.School employees found a 15-year-old student in possession of a small amount of marijuana on campus Jan. 13.
School officials proceeded to ask questions about other students who might have marijuana on campus as well, said Sara Niegowski, district communications director.
In the course of their investigation, two other students were found to be in possession of the drug, she said.
An 18-year-old and a 17-year-old were found with small amounts of the substance on school property Jan. 20 and 21, respectively.
The substance is being tested by a laboratory; when the results are back, they will likely be forwarded to the King County Prosecutor’s Office with a recommendation to file charges, King County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sgt. John Urquhart wrote in an e-mail.
School officials have expelled the students, pending further investigation. Students will have the opportunity to appeal any decisions, according to district policy.
District officials have fielded calls from local media asking to verify the validity of a student’s e-mail saying that more than 70 students were being expelled.
District officials and Urquhart said those rumors aren’t true.
“Someone is spreading a rumor about the severity of what happened,” Niegowski said.
School officials are still investigating the issue to make sure there isn’t a larger problem, which is standard procedure, she said.
“The Sheriff’s Office is not conducting an ongoing drug investigation at Liberty, but we will take action when drugs (or other contraband) is found or suspected,” Urquhart wrote.
“We take every incident at our schools seriously,” Niegowski said. “This is a definite concern, and we want to make sure our schools are safe and healthy places for students to be.”
Liberty, however, is not the only school to encounter such disciplinary issues; school officials deal with them every day at every school, she added.
Parents can help school officials and their children by becoming more aware of what students are doing.
The district’s Parents, Teachers and Students Association is hosting a series of seminars about teen behavior.
The seminar features school faculty and local law enforcement officers speaking about what they see occurring in and out of schools, and what parents can do to help their children understand consequences of their actions.
The last of the three seminars is scheduled at 7 p.m. Jan. 27 at Liberty.
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Wow, students at “LIBERTY” high school forced to rat out other “suspected” usurpers of the status quo, all for “suspicious contraband”
change the name to Karl Marx Memorial High you hypocrites, and while your at it, go after the real problem instead of blaming weed.
So, for the offense of having a little weed their education is forcibly ended and they will have a criminal record that prevents them from paying for college. I think its very obvious what the worst side effect of Pot is…the authorities.
I used to get high in high school on occasion, I got high in college regularly. After 30 years of daily pot smoking I decided to take an extensive intelligence test to see whether I’d lost any IQ points in the process. In 1962 my school pre-enrollment testing measured an overall IQ of 130. In 1975 my SAT tests were a combined 1310 – roughly equivalent to an IQ of 131. In 2004 my IQ score was 140. Damn, I sure do miss all those brain cells my pot smoking killed.
The persecution of pot smokers in this country is an outrage and a display of the arrogance of power. God gave us cannabis, but the government keeps trying to thwart the will of God. Why is government fighting against God’s will?
Ironic, isn’t it, that the latest excuse for cannabis prohibition is ‘to send a message to young people.’ The message being that we want them to think that it is so dangerous that it will ruin their lives. Since the drug itself is safer than the caffeine in your coffee (hell, even safer than *water*), the authorities have to create the danger themselves. And even while they cry ‘think of the children!’ it is easier for minors to obtain drugs from the unregulated black market than it will ever be to obtain regulated alcohol from a liquor store. It’s time to end prohibition, again, and forty years overdue.
The state of Washington just missed the chance to legalize regulate and tax Marijuana because a committee of less then ten legislators “snuffed” the bill before it could move forward to a floor vote. If those kids were caught with a bottle of wine they might have been sent home with a note to parents no big deal. The kids would not have been able to get the wine as easily as pot because wine is legal and regulated