xxdr_zombiexx

South Haven administrator quits after marijuana flap
The Herald-Palladium | Saturday, February 21, 2004

By ANDREW LERSTEN / H-P South Haven Bureau

SOUTH HAVEN -- Facing a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge, South Haven High School's assistant principal, Pat Conroy, resigned Friday, Schools Superintendent Dave Myers said.

Conroy, 52, was arraigned on the charge Friday in Seventh District Court in South Haven and pleaded not guilty, court officials said. If convicted, he could could be sentenced to up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. He was released on a $1,000 personal recognizance bond pending a pre-trial hearing scheduled for March 9.

Police said Conroy told them he placed marijuana in a student's locker last year, hoping the boy, whom he suspected was a drug dealer, would be expelled.

Conroy had been on paid administrative leave since police raided his high school office Feb. 9 and found several bags of marijuana and assorted pills in his desk. He told police the drugs had been confiscated from students over the 4 1/2 years he has been assistant principal. He was hired in August 1999.

Myers said Conroy notified district officials Friday and told them he was resigning immediately.

In his police report, South Haven Deputy Police Chief Tom Martin said Conroy told him that last year he placed some of the marijuana from his office in the locker of a male high school student he strongly suspected was a drug dealer. He said he was hoping the drugs would be found during a police dog search of the school and would lead to the boy's expulsion.

[zombienote: In addition to remembering Tulia, we must also remember Goose Creeks' ugly high school drug raid. This would appear to be becoming an epidemic.]

The plan didn't work, because the drug dog did not pick up the scent of the marijuana during the search, Conroy told police.

The marijuana found in Conroy's desk was in 10 small plastic bags, and the total weight of all the drug was less than an ounce, said Police Chief Rod Somerlott. Some of the bags had identifying tags with names of students on them, but others did not, Somerlott said.

Conroy told police he kept the drugs in his office so he could bring them to school board student expulsion hearings to show as evidence if necessary. But school board President Ed Bocock said he does not recall ever seeing drugs brought to an expulsion hearing by Conroy, and the district has a policy stating that police must immediately be notified that drugs have been seized at the school, and that the drugs will be turned over to police.

Conroy told police he came up with the idea of placing marijuana in the student's locker early last year after several locker searches by the South Haven Police Department's drug dog, Herbie, turned up no drugs at the school.

The superintendent said Friday the district plans to fill Conroy's position.

The district has two assistant high school principal positions. Conroy was the dean of students, and the other assistant principal is the athletic director.

"We think it's a critical position, and we will look everywhere (to find a new assistant)," Myers said.

[zombienote: Note the headline: this ultra-criminal act of planting drugs to ruin somebody - a youngster at that - is already reduced to a "flap". Meaning: It wasn't THAT big a deal, was it? The Media, the Police and School administration could be presented as working togetehr to downplay the great significance of this issue.

This is going to be happening more and more. I am personally aware of a case JUST like this right here in Gerogia, but it never made it to the media, and I cannot jump on it due to demands of confidentiality. Young people - young black men in particular - are being set up and destroyed by reefer mad school principals. And marijuana prohibition is the tool being used to do it.]

__________________
Torture Good, Healthcare Bad, Marijuana Evil.

There's no money for your issue so long as we're squandering $50 billion a year on the DrugWar. Ben Masel