Marijuana found in elementary school

Published 9:43 pm Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Marijuana was found at Ethel Kight Elementary School Friday, and the LaGrange Police Department has wrapped up an investigation into how it got there and the findings are inconclusive.

A student found the marijuana by spinning a toilet paper roll in the bathroom. The marijuana, which was under an ounce, fell out of the roll and the student made his teacher aware of it.

The student did not recognize what it was, according to LaGrange Police Lt. Dale Strickland.  The teacher alerted administrators, and the LPD was called to investigate.

Footage from video cameras in the school’s hallway were reviewed, but there was no evidence on how the marijuana ended up in the bathroom.

“There was no evidence the officer could find at the scene or any witnesses to determine who brought it to school,” Strickland said. “There’s no way from the evidence or the information at this time to determine where it came from or who brought it.”

Strickland said it’s hard to know when the marijuana was placed in the bathroom.

“The officer with the administration at the school reviewed the videos with the school to determine the fact that the video did not lead to anybody else,” he said. “It’s hard to tell when it got put in there.”

Yolanda Stephen, Troup County Director of Public Relations, said that after the investigation, she hopes students will speak up to administrators when they see something like this.

“The biggest thing for us is it’s important for students to, if they see something, they need to say something,” Stephen said. “We work as a community to make sure that our schools are safe and that we keep the things out of school that we don’t want there because we want it to be the best environment for learning. That’s all around, I think that’s the most important things from this that we want to take away.”

Strickland said the marijuana was placed in evidence for destruction. This case was unusual for an elementary school, he said.

“It does not happen very often. I cannot think of any calls for service from this year or any illegal drugs or substances like that located at the elementary school,” he said. “From time to time, we get those cases at the high schools and, sometimes, it’s not very often, at the middle schools.”