Brookfield’s K9 police unit, with assistance from canine units from surrounding towns, did a scheduled sweep of Brookfield High School (BHS) Thursday morning searching for “illegal substances or contraband,” according to principal Joseph Palumbo.
There were no arrests in the sweep, according to Brookfield police, and nothing was discovered, according to Palumbo.
The high school went into lockdown around 9 a.m. Thursday during the sweep of the school and parking lot and students were not allowed to leave their classrooms until 9:50 a.m.
The lockdown and search are an annual effort between Brookfield law enforcement and public schools. A similar search in 2010 turned up a quantity of marijuana in a student’s locker.
“As stated in our student handbook these sweeps are scheduled during the year to help us in our efforts to eliminate the possession or use of illegal substances or contraband,” Palumbo said. Though sweeps are scheduled and coordinated with law enforcement, parents and faculty are not informed until minutes before it happened.
An announcement was made in the building before the sweep began to let students know what was taking place and to avoid concern in regard to the presence of law enforcement officials on campus.
“Students found about the same as the teachers — 8:50,” Palumbo said, with only the two assistant principals, superintendent and members of the Board of Education (BOE) made aware beforehand.
Palumbo said he saw at least four drug-sniffing dogs at the school Thursday and was told they were trained to find marijuana, cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.
In response to a question from a reader on the Brookfield Patch Facebook page, Palumbo stated that looking through the records at BHS “we never found one instance of a student found with heroin.”
