MIAMI (Reuters) - Parents of students at a South Carolina high school charged in a federal lawsuit on Monday that their children were terrorized by armed police and drug-sniffing dogs during an illegal search at the school.
The lawsuit stems from the surprise commando-style drug search of 107 students at Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, on Nov. 5.
A widely televised surveillance tape of the raid showed police with guns drawn, handcuffing students with plastic cuffs and ordering them not to move while officers and dogs searched them. No drugs or weapons were found and no arrests were made.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, on behalf of 20 Stratford High students aged 14 to 18. It accuses police and school officials of violating the students' constitutional rights by conducting an illegal search and seizure, using excessive force, committing assault and battery and subjecting students to false imprisonment.
Officials at the Goose Creek Police Department and Berkeley County School system in South Carolina could not immediately be reached for comment. Police said earlier the raid was prompted by allegations of drug sales on school property.
The lawsuit asks the court to declare the raid unconstitutional, block future raids and award unspecified damages to the students involved.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the plaintiffs, said police pointed guns at some of the students and "treated innocent children like hardened criminals."
Sharon Smalls said her 14-year-old son Nathaniel was forced to his knees with his hands behind his head while his socks, wallet and pockets were searched. "When I saw the video on television I almost lost it. It looked like something from the war, not from my son's school," she said.
The suit said police hid in closets, offices and stairwells and when the hallway filled with students, rushed out with guns drawn, yelling "Get down." Some students dove to the ground, while police grabbed and pushed others who hesitated, forcing them to the floor and handcuffing those who failed to immediately put their hands behind their heads, it said.
Police and school officials searched students' pockets and wallets, dumped out the contents of book bags and "terrorized the students," leaving them "feeling betrayed, frightened, humiliated and wrongfully accused," the lawsuit said.
It said none of the students caught up in the raid had any history of drug or weapons possession and that police had no probable cause to target them.
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