North Farmington 'Lockdown' Exercise Nets Marijuana Possession Ticket

A planned lock-down exercise at today resulted in a student being ticketed for marijuana possession and angered some students. 

In an email sent out to the North Farmington list serv at 9:52 a.m., school officials wrote that the exercise was part of an "ongoing effort to ensure a safe and successful learning environment" for the school's more than 1,400 students. It also offered a training opportunity for K-9 teams not only in Farmington Hills, but around the Detroit metropolitan area. 

"This helps their teams train in a real environment, and it also gives NFHS one more valuable way to ensure the safety, well-being, and success of your daughters and sons," officials wrote. 

Chief Nebus said K-9s from Canton Township, Trenton, Flat Rock, Hamtramck, Garden City and Grosse Pointe, as well as Hills K-9 Argos, searched both lockers and vehicles in the school parking lot.

"We try to bring in a bunch so we can get in and out as quickly as we can," he said. Dogs "hit" on three lockers and nine vehicles, resulting in interviews with those students. 

"This was done as a precautionary measure," Nebus said, "not in response to anything that occurred at the school."

A similar exercise was done last year at , he added. 

The North Farmington drill "went very well. The success is we only found a very small amount of marijuana in a car in the parking lot."

A few students took to Twitter to voice their displeasure with the way the exercise was handled. Twitter users created the hashtags #occupynorth and #occupynorthbegins, identifying with the nationwide movement protesting economic and social inequality. 

Farmington-Farmington Hills Patch was unable to reach North Farmington's administration for comment.