Nov. 18, 2004 — As an accrediting team wrapped up its visit at the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School Thursday (see "Kean High Sees Final Reaccreditation Team Visit"), some unlikely guests also paid the campus a visit.
Officers from the Police Department were called to the school Thursday morning when a 17-year-old Kean student was found to have what appeared to be marijuana on the school grounds.
Police Spokesman, Sgt. Thomas Hannah said at about 8:30 a.m. the male student left his classroom without seeking permission. A school monitor stopped the student in the hallway and took him to the main office where he was searched.
"In the process of examining his book bag they found a Ziploc bag with what appeared to be marijuana," Hannah said.
Hannah said police were called to the scene and the young man was arrested, detained and charged with possession of a controlled substance. The Police Department's Forensics Unit later declared that the bag was indeed marijuana.
Hannah said the young man was released into his mother's custody pending a court hearing.
"Parents are reminded that school monitors have the authority of searching book bags once students come on the campus," Hannah said.
Kean Principal Sharon McCollum-Rogers did not return calls concerning the incident to verify whether, as some individuals have claimed, the student was the young man whose enrollment in the school she had been protesting. (See "Kean to Reopen Monday, Justice Files Appeal").
Questions had been raised on whether a job action by teachers in support of Rogers would hurt the school's chances of reaccreditation. More than 900 students missed three days of school because of that incident.
Juel Anderson, public relations personnel for the Education Department, said she had not heard anything about the arrest by press time Thursday.
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