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Chancellor High School student suspended for five days for having two Tylenol tablets. By ALLEN SCAIFE

By ALLEN SCAIFE

Date published: 2/3/2004

YOUTH CORRESPONDENT

It happened like this:

Each seventh of a school day has its own distinct characteristics. The first class of the day is passed in a half-dazed state of semiconsciousness and quickly blends into second period.

At this point, the dull realization sets in that a new day is just beginning.

After first period, waking life is a thing of the past. The sour taste of the early morning is cut by Winterfresh gum, and the teacher's writing on the chalkboard looks a little less blurry.

However, eyes still droop every now and then, and an occasional thought drifts back to the warm and comfortable bed that had been robbed of its only occupant by a raucous alarm clock.

For one Chancellor High School student, second period on Friday, Dec. 12 was no daydream.

Rachel Warrick changed into her PE clothes and headed for the gym, leaving her book bag in the locker room as she always did. She then joined the other students as they waited for class to begin.

Shortly, an announcement came on through the PA system explaining that all students would be locked into their second period classes until further notice. Drug bust. This is a normal event in almost every high school across America.

Warrick had nothing to worry about. She had never been in trouble before in her life. The only sedatives she carried came in the form of heavy textbooks.

She was not in the least bit unnerved, and waited until Jacqueline Bass-Fortune, Chancellor's principal, dismissed the students from second period.

When she walked back into the locker room, she was shocked to find that her bag had been taken. A gym teacher was waiting for her. She explained that the police had taken her bag after one of the dogs had barked upon sniffing it.

Warrick was to report immediately to the office.

Upon entering the office, she was faced by a panel of grim looking adults. Her backpack was on a table. A small plastic zip-lock baggie lay beside it.

"We found this in your bag," someone told her.

There were two Tylenol tablets enclosed in the plastic.

The police, performing a routine canine drug-search, had been alerted by the dogs of something suspicious when they inspected Warrick's belongings.

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Date published: 2/3/2004