No drugs or weapons were discovered during the raid and no arrest were made by the local Goose Creek police.
National news agencies broadcast parts of the Stratford High School surveillance video tape which showed dozens of students handcuffed and sitting on the floor in a hallway while police stood over them with guns drawn and police dogs sniffed their backpacks.
Local prosecutor Ralph Hoisington asked the State Law Enforcement Division to investigate possible police misconduct in the incident.
"I don't think there's anything wrong at all with law enforcement addressing a problem in a high school, but I have serious concerns about the need for restraining students and drawing weapons," Hoisington told reporters. "I don't want to send my child to a school and find out guns are drawn on them."
"I was frightened because they had guns in their hands," one student told NBC's Today Show. "I thought one of the guns was going to go off and shoot or kill somebody, so I just got down to my knees and covered my head for protection."
"You absolutely cannot bring police with guns drawn into a school," said Graham Boyd, director of the drug policy project for the American Civil Liberties Union. Boyd said police should have called suspected students to the principal's office to check their bags. He said the search as it was conducted was illegal.
Local police defended their tactics. Police Lt. Dave Aarons said police drew their guns as a matter of safety. "I don't think it was an overreaction," he said. "Anytime you have qualified information regarding drugs and large amounts of money, there's a reasonable assumption weapons are involved."
The officers handcuffed students because they failed to "respond to repeated police instruction," Aarons said.
The school principal also defended the action. "We received reports from staff members and students that there was a lot of drug activity," said George McCrackin. "Recently we busted a student for having over 300-plus prescription pills. The volume and the amount of marijuana coming into the school is unacceptable."
During the raid, police dogs alerted on several backpacks, but no drugs were found. Police officers, who watched school surveillence tapes before deciding that they did have probable cause for the search, believe students using cell phones tipped off their drug-dealing friends about the raid.
