Connetquot High School to have drug sweeps, official says
An undated file photo of Connetquot High School. Credit: Connetquot High School
Suffolk County police have been invited by the Connetquot Central School District to conduct drug sweeps at the high school in Bohemia before it lets out in June.
Drug-sniffing dogs will check not only student lockers but their cars as well, Superintendent Lynda G. Adams told parents in a letter sent home Friday.
If illicit drugs, weapons “or other unlawful items” are found, students “will be held accountable,” she said.
In addition to being suspended from school, students “should expect to be arrested by the County Police,” Adams said in the letter, adding that the department enforces an “aggressive, pro-arrest policy in these circumstances.”
Adams told parents that lockers are subject to inspection because they are district property.
She said, too, that students’ cars also are fair game, citing a district policy that allows such searches if school officials have “reasonable suspicion to believe that the search will result in evidence that the student violated the law.”
Students will not be notified in advance of the sweeps and will not be allowed to retrieve items from their lockers while they are taking place, she said. Adams added that the primary goal is not to arrest students, but to stop them from bringing drugs to school.
