A student of St. Cecilia School in Fox Chase was escorted from the building by police after school officials allegedly caught him with marijuana in class.
The school and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia did not identify the eighth-grader by name because of his age. A witness to the March 2 incident told the Northeast Times that a teacher suspected that the pupil had contraband in his bookbag, so he asked to search it. The boy agreed.
Although no banned items were discovered in the bag, school officials found marijuana inside the boy’s desk, the source said.
Philadelphia police arrived at the school at about 2 p.m. and took the student away. A police source told the Times that the youth was offered admission into a nontrial rehabilitative program as part of which he would have to perform public service.
An archdiocese spokesman, Ken Gavin, said that administrators called Philadelphia police “after suspecting that a student had possession of an illegal and controlled substance on school grounds.” Law enforcement is “handling the matter,” Gavin said by email, while the school “has taken appropriate disciplinary” action.
School families were informed about the incident on Tuesday. ••
