Dagga and a knife were found hidden in a grade eight classroom at a Diepsloot school on Tuesday in a raid by more than 100 police officers using sniffer dogs.
Four youths were also arrested, but not in class. They were caught smoking dagga at a shebeen about 500m from Itirele-Senzele High School, said Pretoria police spokesperson Captain Piletji Sebola.
The raid was a joint operation by crime combating and dog unit police and Johannesburg Metro Police. It followed tip-offs by concerned parents and the community, said Sebola.
It was also the result of numerous complaints by the school’s principal that pupils were carrying weapons, said a Johannesburg Metro Police spokesperson, Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.
About 100 law enforcers swept through the building at 10am, searching all classrooms, from grade eight to 12, housing the school’s 1 900 pupils. Then the sniffer dogs were sent in.
Sebola said four rolls of dagga weighing about 300g and a knife were discovered hidden on the floor behind a steel cabinet in a grade eight classroom.
Further investigation led police to an illegal shebeen, where they caught four teenagers — aged 16 to 18 — smoking dagga and found more than 20 dagga plants.
The youths have since been arrested for possession of dagga, as has the shebeen owner, who faces charges of selling alcohol to children. Police confiscated 15 cases of beer.
No one was arrested at the school, said Sebola, adding that police believe their mere presence has done much to prevent the use of drugs by schoolchildren.
Raids on schools for drugs and weapons will continue, driven by information obtained from the community and parents, he said. — Sapa