STUDENT DRUG USE ALARMS LIBERTY-BENTON OFFICIALS

FINDLAY - The signs that some Liberty-Benton High School students were
using drugs were textbook: Their grades were dropping, their behavior changing.

Principal Brenda Frankart said she could not ignore those warning signs or
the persistent rumors she'd heard about marijuana use among her students.
She called in the Hancock County sheriff's office and worked with officers
on a lengthy investigation that culminated Wednesday in the arrest of two
seniors and a search of the school by drug-sniffing dogs. A similar search
was done in October.

"We did this because we care. I really can't stress that enough," Ms.
Frankart said. "There were so many times we were concerned with what we
heard our students were doing."

Sara Starcher, 19, and Levi Clagg, 18, were arrested Wednesday after secret
indictments handed up by a Hancock County grand jury were unsealed.

Ms. Starcher is charged with two counts of trafficking in marijuana, and
Mr. Clagg is charged with one count of the same.

Both students allegedly sold small quantities of marijuana to an informant
who was enrolled at the high school as part of the investigation. The young
woman is no longer enrolled at Liberty-Benton. Miss Starcher and Mr. Clagg
were being held in the Hancock County jail yesterday with arraignments in
Common Pleas Court set for Wednesday.

While authorities said the alleged drug transactions did not take place on
school property, Ms. Frankart said that's only a small consolation.

"It still is having an impact on our kids," she said. "They're not
necessarily bringing their drugs to school with them, but it's pretty clear
they're making their arrangements here."

Detectives were continuing to interview students at the school just west of
Findlay yesterday, and more charges could result, she said.

Ms. Frankart met with the approximately 400 students at the high school
class by class Wednesday to explain what was going on and why. She has
invited parents to attend a meeting at 7 tonight in the high school
auditorium to discuss the issue further.

In a letter mailed to parents, she urged them to talk to their children
about drugs and peer pressure. "Together we can make a difference," she
wrote. "Our children deserve the best protection we can provide them."

On Monday, the school board is expected to adopt a first-ever drug-testing
policy for student athletes.

Superintendent Dennis Recker said the policy is modeled after one adopted
in 1997 by Lake Local Schools in northern Wood County.

The policy, which outlines not only punishment but counseling and other
treatment, is intended to give athletes a reason to say no to drugs and
alcohol and a reason for others to back off from pressuring them to use, he
said.

Mr. Recker, superintendent of the suburban Findlay district for 12 years,
said he is disappointed that the need for such a policy has arisen.

"If you'd have asked me five years ago, is there a drug problem? I'd have
fought tooth and nail against a drug-testing policy for our kids. Not our
kids," he said. "As society changes as it does and as we find sometimes
that youngsters make bad choices, kids get involved in activities they
shouldn' t."

Because the alleged crimes did not take place on school property, the two
students arrested this week won't be subject to disciplinary action at school.

Mr. Recker said he wants to see both get whatever help they need. Society
will not be so forgiving after high school, he said. "The reality is, if
you go to the workplace and test for a substance and you're dirty, you're
gone," Mr. Recker said.

Ms. Frankart said students must understand that when they see their friends
drinking or smoking marijuana, they are enabling them when they sit back
and do nothing.

"I told them I'm not comfortable with how comfortable they've become
knowing their classmates do these things then get behind the wheel,
sometimes even do it behind the wheel," she said.