By Marie Moeller ’15

Recent news of a Good Counsel drug scandal has reached Sherwood via text and word of mouth. Reportedly, on Wednesday, February 4, student after student was ushered down to the main office of Good Counsel in response to a police investigation of drug usage and the distribution of nude photos of female students.

According to multiple sources, police were tipped by the parents of a male student, who is a sophomore at Good Counsel, after watching their son’s Snapchat story, which depicts him smoking marijuana. The parents confronted their son and proceeded to find out where he got the illegal drugs. They then notified the police of another male student, a senior at Good Counsel, who was distributing the illegal drugs. It is rumored that the police arrested the student after receiving the call. However, Good Counsel sent a letter home to parents strongly refuting the claim that any students were arrested, and there is no public police report of his arrest on file. The letter makes no mention of whether there was a police investigation.

Multiple Good Counsel students speculated that the student’s phone was examined by police and used to identify several students he has dealt drugs to as well as the names of other drug dealers at the school. Multiple nude photos of female students from Good Counsel reportedly were also discovered.

According to anonymous sources, Good Counsel suspended anywhere from 30-60 students and expelled three more, including the male student who’s phone was examined. The students suspended were involved in the spreading and viewing of the nude photos and, reportedly, the possession of illegal drugs. In the letter to parents, however, President Paul Barker and Principal Tom Campbell clarified that the rumored amount of students suspended was “not even close to the extent communicated by the gossip,” as stated in the letter, but they did not disclose the actual number and did not state the punishments that students received because they said the school is “bound by student confidentiality laws and ethical practice.” According to the letter, Good Counsel is currently arranging for a speaker to help educate the students of the risky behavior involved in sexting and the social and legal implications of doing so.

The letter closed by bemoaning the fact that students and parents at Good Counsel and in the larger community have been sharing rumors about the reported sexting. The letter called “the exaggerations and outright falsehoods” that have come to the school’s attention “truly disheartening.” The school is urging faculty to use recent events as “a teachable moment” on respecting the privacy of other students by disengaging in gossip. The letter to parents does not mention the rumors of drug use, instead focusing only on deterring students from sending inappropriate images, which “is sadly common among teenagers across the country.”