{"id":5926,"date":"2014-05-14T18:29:22","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5926"},"modified":"2014-05-14T18:29:22","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T22:29:22","slug":"casd-says-discovery-of-heroin-handled-poorly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/?p=5926","title":{"rendered":"CASD says discovery of heroin handled poorly"},"content":{"rendered":"

District cites multiple deficiencies, particularly in communication<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kyle Carrozza<\/strong>,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Deborah<\/a>

Deborah Thompson reads the district statement. The statement said that a lack of a search, the delay in identifying the substance as heroin, and a lack of communication with board members contributed to the district\u2019s failing to handle the matter properly.<\/p><\/div>\n

COATESVILLE \u2013 At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the Coatesville Area School District acknowledged \u00a0failures in the way it handled the discovery of heroin at Caln Elementary on May 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur investigation revealed that there were multiple failures in several respects, which contributed to the accurate perception that the incident at Caln should have been handled better,\u201d School Board Member Deborah Thompson read from the district\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n

The investigation revealed failures to search students and the building after the substance was found, failure to ensure full compliance with the Memorandum of Understanding with Caln Township Police, a failure to identify the substance as heroin, and a failure by administrators to communicate with the superintendent, district solicitor, and school board until nearly nine hours after the discovery as the shortcomings in the aftermath of the incident, the statement said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Solicitor James Ellison would not comment on disciplinary actions for district personnel but said that it \u201cis something we\u2019re looking in to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison said that after the discovery was made at 10:30 a.m., a conversation was held between school staff. The staff contacted district police, who arrived 20 to 30 minutes later, about an hour after the initial discovery. District police then contacted local police forces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say that between approximately 12 and 1 o\u2019clock, all three police departments [Caln, Coatesville, and South Coatesville,] were notified,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to the district\u2019s statement, the substance was identified as heroin at 2:30 that afternoon.<\/p>\n

However, Ellison was not notified of the incident until approximately 7:40 p.m. after a parent reported that her son gave a baggie to her, the statement said. Ellison then notified the entire school board and superintendent by 8 p.m. Every school board member demanded that parents be notified, and they sought an investigation as to why they were not informed in real time.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we were notified in real time \u2026 we would have immediately contacted the board, and the board would have provided input,\u201d Ellison said after the statement was read.<\/p>\n

Thompson said that the board was immediately concerned as to why they were not contacted sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe the board were very, very, I would say, angry,\u201d she said. \u201cWe asked the solicitor to identify what the breakdowns were.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement went on to say that throughout the weekend, May 3 and 4, school police provided \u201call information within our possession to local police and Chester County Detectives,\u201d which led to a search warrant at the suspect\u2019s home and subsequent arrest.<\/p>\n

On Monday, May 5, Ellison met with school police and discussed a sweep to be completed by the Caln Police Department. Though board members said that they would prefer a sweep to be done before or after school to ease any concerns about police animals in the presence of students, they did authorize a full sweep to be done during school hours, including the retention of student bookbags. Assistant Superintendent Dr. Angelo Romaniello learned that \u00a0Caln Police believed the district did not want a sweep, and he was instructed to let them know they should proceed with an immediate and complete building sweep, the statement said.<\/p>\n

Ellison said that he does not know why Caln Police did not sweep the building earlier or why there have been reports that he or the district initially refused Caln Police\u2019s efforts to sweep the school. He said that the district\u2019s Memorandum of Understanding with Caln Police dictates that in situations where drugs are reported in a school, police are obligated to take certain actions, including conducting a thorough investigation, showing up on site, and securing emergency medical personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, the Caln Township Police Chief was under the impression that I cancelled the search, but I never did any such thing,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cNo law enforcement agency was ever denied entry into the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison said that he thought Caln Police would take action to search the school because of the Memorandum of Understanding. \u201cI can\u2019t answer why Caln Township didn\u2019t send police officers to the school,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were under the impression that Caln Township Police were involved. We didn\u2019t realize that that presumption was an error until Monday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellison said that in addition to its investigation over the past week, the board will also be looking to possibly develop new district policies to handle similar situations in the future. Should they develop new policies, those policies will be implemented \u201cwith all due speed\u201d and announced to the public, he said.<\/p>\n

The board and Ellison have come under sharp attack for their handling of the drug discovery from Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan, who continued his criticism on Wednesday. \u201cThis board and solicitor never miss a chance to make a bad situation even worse,\u201d Hogan said in response to the board\u2019s statement. \u00a0\u201cThey made some critical mistakes. They should apologize, accept responsibility, stop blaming other people, and promise never to put their own students in danger like this again.\u201d
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District cites multiple deficiencies, particularly in communication By Kyle Carrozza,\u00a0Staff Writer, The Times COATESVILLE \u2013 At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, the Coatesville Area School District acknowledged \u00a0failures in the way it handled the discovery of heroin at Caln Elementary on May 2. \u201cOur investigation revealed that there were multiple failures in several respects, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[3628,187,3745],"class_list":["post-5926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-caln-elementary-school","tag-coatesville-area-school-district","tag-school-board-member-deborah-thompson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5926\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chescotimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}