Drug policy activist *searched and detained* by notorious South Carolina principal after being invited onto school grounds

[Tim Meehan]

Report by Dan Goldman (dan at ssdp.org) of Students for Sensible Drug Policy
(http://www.ssdp.org)

Forwarded from Loretta Nall (alabamamjparty at graffiti.net) of the US Marijuana
Party (http://www.usmjparty.com)


Loretta said:

This just in from my buddy Dan Goldman who is still on the ground in South
Carolina 

---

Now I promised you a good story and here it is... 

On Thursday when I went back to Stratford High School, I had a rather 
unexpected encounter. I started the day out as usual, passing out DPA's 
information, SSDP's stickers and a few of the SSDP t-shirts that I had 
left. At one point, a pair of teachers walked passed and I offered both of 
them the pamphlet and booklet. One of them asked "What is it?" and one of 
the students around him answered, "It has to do with keeping our school 
drug-free." A heavy-set man whose name I later learned was Mr. Green, took 
both the pamphlet and the booklet. The man next to him, a younger, smaller 
teacher whose name I later learned was Mr. McCombs refused my offer. In my 
youthful exhuberance, I said some snide remark to the effect of, "Way to 
set an example for your students by remaining ignorant." I know I shouldn't 
have said something like that and I didn't even think he heard me, but I 
was mistaken. Read on... 

Now, after most of the students dispersed, I did what I did the day before 
and walked through a muddy foot path, about 30 feet over to the school 
grounds to pass out a few more flyers. As I was walking back through the 
foot path to my car, I saw both of the teachers again and I kindly offered 
my last pamphlet to Mr. McCombs, who had neglected to take it before. This 
time he was very upset. He wanted to know why I would say what I said to 
him about staying ignorant. He said, "I've been to college and I've been 
teaching for 4 years, don't you think I may know a little something about 
keeping kids drug-free?" I said, "You may know a little something, but you 
probably haven't been exposed to what's in this pamphlet, so why don't you 
take one and find out?" He told me he didn't have time to read one and I 
suggested he do what most people do and put it in his pocket to read when 
he does have time. 

Mr. McCombs continued to wonder aloud why I thought it was necessary to 
undermine him in front of students and I continued to wonder to myself how 
one snide comment can undermine the authority of a teacher who has their 
attention every day for an hour? Now at this point, the two teachers began 
threatening me with this whole issue of tresspassing on school 
grounds. Since I was in fact on school grounds momentarily without 
permission, I really didn't want to get into it with them. I was about to 
leave with the excuse of another appointment (which was true, Ian Mance was 
arriving around 4:30pm and I wanted to see him as I've been staying at his 
parents' house for the last week) but then they made me an offer I couldn't 
refuse.... 

They offered to take me to see Principal McCrackin. Now, last week Mr. 
McCrackin had sent home a letter to parents offering to meet with any of 
them that still had concerns about the drug raid. However, according to 
the parents I've spoken with who've tried to meet with him, he's always 
busy. So I didn't think I would have the chance to meet the man behind the 
myth, and when the chance just presented itself like that, I thought it was 
too good to be true. 

Well, like everything too good to be true... It was! As I walked through 
the school, continuing my witty banter with the two teachers, we entered 
the principal's office and to my surprise, there were two officers of the 
law instead of one Principal. Immediately, one of them, a very big man 
named Cpl. Aucoin demanded my identification. Now having just seen BUSTED, 
I wasn't immediately inclined to give it to him. However I did tell him my 
name and I showed him the materials I was distributing. I asked Cpl. 
Aucoin if I was free to go and he said, "No," that he was detaining 
me. The two teachers insisted they caught me tressassing and I corrected 
them and explained they encountered me in between the back of strip mall 
and the school grounds on that muddy foot path. Then, in came McCrackin... 

I'm not sure how many of you have seen a picture of George McCrackin, but 
he's in his mid to late 50's, I would guess, dark hair that's greying but 
looks like he colors it. He's about 5 ft. 7in tall and maybe 170 
lbs. He's a short, stout man, the kind with a Napolean complex of 
sorts. He looks tired beyond his years, like a man who has been at his job 
for too long. He's been principal of Stratford High School since it opened 
20 years ago and before that he was assistant Superintendent of Schools in 
North Charleston and a principal and teacher for years before that, so the 
man has been in education for quite some time -- his entire adult life, in 
fact. 

That he cares for children was evident from speaking to many people in the 
community, but that he pre-judges people and labels them "good" or "bad" 
and then acts towards them accordingly, was also quite evident from 
speaking to his students, especially those who were at one time "good", but 
then did something to get themselves labeled "bad". They speak quite 
insightfully about how he treats his students. 

Upon speaking to Mr. McCrackin and being threatened with an arrest for 
tresspass, I decided to give up my ID. Cpl. Aucoin ran my ID as Mr. 
McCrackin disappeared with his two teachers to persumably view the 
videotape from one of the school's 70 surveillance cameras. He came back 
and said he had evidence I was "on his campus." I admitted to passing out a 
few materials to 6 students, said as much to him and apologized for not 
knowing I needed his permission to pass out flyers. (It wasn't as 
sarcastic as it sounds when you read this, honest.) He then asked me where 
I was parked, I think because he wanted to nail me for parking in "his lot" 
as well, but unfortunately as I told him, I was parked in the strip mall 
parking lot, which is off school grounds. Cpl. Aucoin asked if I saw the 
sign that said "For Customers Only" and I explained that I had purchased my 
lunch at the Subway in the strip mall, so I was indeed, a customer. 

Now at this point things got really weird. See earlier that afternoon, as 
school let out, a bunch of kids were speeding around the parking lot and 
burning the rubber on their tires. Then the police came and chased one of 
them. I believe Mr. McCrackin was rightly concerned with this incident, 
but seemed to place the blame in a strange place. (Does this sound 
framiliar?) When I told them I bought my lunch at Subway, he went on about 
how he was going to have that place closed down and what a dangerous 
situation it was causing. I couldn't understand how a sandwhich shop could 
be responsible for high school kids doing stupid things in their cars, but 
I guess it makes sense somewhere in McCrackin World. 

After he ended his subway tirade, I got to explaining about the "Safety 
First" philosophy and from what he said to me in response, I can say with 
100% certainty that this man has lost his grip on reality. He told me he 
knew "Just Say No" wasn't working because they have Red Ribbon Week at 
school and although it's a school of 2700 people, there were 20-30 who were 
just going to do what they wanted to do anyways. I was honestly shocked 
that this man who has been an educator all his life, believes that there 
are only 20-30 students using drugs at his school. I spoke to at least 
20-30 kids every day after school and I know I'm not hitting the lion's 
share of the drug using population at that school (most of whom are 
overwhelmingly marijuana smokers only), just the ones who happen to walk 
home that way or hang out in that area after school. So with what must 
have been a look of stupified incredulity on my face, the unexpected 
happened... 

George McCrackin told me to turn around and put my hands on my head with my 
fingers crossed. He said he was going to search me, as he had the right to 
search anyone in his school. He asked me if I had anything in my pockets I 
shouldn't have. The whole time I'm in utter disbelief that I'm being 
detained and searched by the principal of Stratford High School, Mr. George 
McCrackin. The irony was too much. 

After emptying my pockets and picking my pants back up for me (my belt 
wasn't tight enough) and not finding anything of interest in my pockets 
other than cash, keys and scraps of paper, I was told to sit down. He was 
still looking through my stuff when he asked me, "Who's Steve Silverman?" 

(I had Steve's name on a list of voicemail messages to return.) I told him 
"Mr. Silverman works for an organization called "Flex Your Rights" out of 
Washington, DC. It teaches young people to assert their constitutional 
rights during police encounters." Neither the cops nor the principal looked 
too thrilled to hear about that. 

There was another cop in the room this whole time, but he never said 
much. His name was Detective Brooder, and he used to work for the NYPD's 
bomb squad. He took much more interest in my ID than anyone else and kept 
bending it, I suspect to see if it was fake. (Earlier, when I was pulling 
out my ID, Cpl. Aucoin thought my expired International Student ID card was 
another license and he wanted to see that as well.) These folks in Goose 
Creek law enforcement just aren't too bright. At least on these two most 
recent searches, they're 0 for 2! 

Before I left, Mr. McCrackin took two copies of DPA's pamphlet and an SSDP 
sticker. He told me he would read the pamphlet even if I didn't believe 
him (which I assured him I did) and I apologized for not having anymore 
copies of the "Safety First" booklet on me to give to him. I then realized 
he took the copy of the pamphlet that had the names of the teachers and 
staff I had just encountered written on the back and when I asked for it 
back, in exchange for a different pamphlet, I was told, "I didn't need to 
have the names of his teachers." As if it was going to be so difficult to 
remember all four names. 

A tresspass warning was filled out with my name on it and my picture was 
taken by Cpl. Aucoin. ("No smiling!" he told me.) After he snapped my mug, 
I was given the warning which I was told to sign and I was reminded that it 
didn't have to be this way, they could have had me arrested, if they 
wanted. Now, having not lined up local counsel in advance, I wasn't too 
eager to spend an evening in the Berkeley County jail and frankly, I'm glad 
it didn't have to come to that. Before I left, I was also told to stay 
away from the strip mall behind the school and that I would be "run out" if 
I tried to come back there again. I guess tomorrow we'll see about that! I 
left the principal's office, walked off campus towards my car and on my way 
I ran into a few more students back in the strip mall parking lot. I told 
them what happened and we had a nice laugh.

Dan Goldman 
McCrackin Victim #108

---

Dan Goldman is a 2001 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he
received a B.A. in history. He has been active in SSDP since the first meeting
of the UW-Madison chapter in the fall of 1999. Since then he has attended every
national SSDP conference, and in the spring of 2001, he organized SSDP's first
regional conference for SSDP activists throughout the midwest. Upon graduating,
Dan worked for the Drug Reform Coordination Network in Washington, DC and most
recently, he was the September 11th Detention Coordinator for the American
Friends Service Committee's Immigrant Rights Program, in Newark, NJ. Dan
currently resides in Madison, WI, where he is working on his first book.


--
Tim Meehan, Communications Director
Ontario Consumers for Safe Access to Recreational Cannabis
tim at ocsarc.org * http://www.ocsarc.org * 416-844-2431