By By GREG KATSKI and BETTY MITCHELL GRAY
WDN Staff
Two high-school students were arrested and two more were issued citations earlier this week after sweeps of Washington and Northside high schools by law-enforcement officers led to the discovery of drugs, drug paraphernalia and weapons, according to area law-enforcement officials.
The investigations were made Tuesday at the request of Beaufort County Schools Superintendent Don Phipps in response to concerns raised by students, parents and public-school faculty and staff members, according to Sarah Hodges, Beaufort County Schools’ public information officer.
Hodges said in an interview Thursday that additional investigations are expected to be carried out in the future.
“This activity and similar ones that will follow are designed to help ensure that our schools are safe for students, faculty and staff members,” Hodges said. “Beaufort County Schools will strive to keep our campuses free from prohibited items.”
Two Washington High School students were issued citations and two students at Northside High School were arrested after Washington police officers and deputies with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office’s Drug Unit, assisted by a drug-detecting dog, conducted a sweep of the schools, according to reports from the two agencies.
Benjamin Bowen Brooks, 18, a resident of 147 Bowen Road, Bath, and Irvin Jesus Morales, 16, a resident of 17 Windley Canal Road, Pantego, are the two Northside High School students who were charged by the sheriff’s office and Charnita Ricks, the school resource officer assigned to Northside High School.
Brooks was charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, felony possession of a firearm on educational property and misdemeanor possession of a weapon on educational property. He was released Tuesday from the Beaufort County Detention Center under a $5,000 secured bond.
Brooks was charged after Elza, the drug-detecting dog, gave a positive alert for the presence of an odor of a controlled substance on a Chevrolet truck that was parked in a parking lot at Northside. Investigators searched the truck and found a small quantity of marijuana, a pipe for smoking marijuana, metal knuckles and a Marlin .22-caliber rifle, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
Morales was charged with misdemeanor possession of a weapon on educational property. He was released Tuesday from the Beaufort County Detention Center under a $2,000 secured bond..
Morales was arrested after the same dog gave a positive alert for the presence of an odor of controlled substance on a book bag located in a classroom. Investigators searched the book bag and found a serrated, hawkbill knife and seven empty White Owl cigar tubes, commonly used to package or conceal a controlled substance, according to the news release.
Washington High School students Adam Manning, 16, a resident of 520 The Dirt Road, Washington, and Joshua Tyler Williams, 16, a resident of 3236 Cherry Run Road, Washington, were issued misdemeanor drug citations by the Washington Police Department and Thomas Everett, the school resource officer assigned to Washington High School.
Manning and Williams were given citations after a drug-detecting dog alerted on a car in the students’ parking lot. Investigators searched the car and found drug paraphernalia used for the ingestion of marijuana, according to Lt. William Chrismon with the Washington Police Department.
“We turned them over to their parents and the school,” he said. “The charges were not severe enough to book them.”
Chrismon said the search was conducted at random.
As a result of Tuesday’s investigation, a fifth student was cited by school officials for violating the Student Code of Conduct, according to Phipps. That student’s name was not provided to the Daily News. That incident remains under investigation.
Phipps said he hopes that Tuesday’s actions will deter the county’s public-school students from bringing drugs and weapons to schools in the future. The message to students from Tuesday’s sweep is that “at any point in time on any day” law-enforcement officers and drug-detecting dogs may come to the schools, Phipps said.
“We want to send a message to our parents that their children are safe in the schools,” he said. “We want to encourage anybody with information to report it. We want to know so that we can take appropriate action.”