Two Hammond High School students were charged with carrying suspected marijuana after detectives and drug-sniffing canines searched the school grounds in Columbia's Kings Contrivance village last week, Howard County police said.
Two boys, 15 and 17, were arrested and suspended from school as part of the random 9 a.m. drug check requested by school officials Friday. The boys were taken to police headquarters in Ellicott City and later released to their parents' custody.
Police and school administrators formed three teams -- each with a police dog -- and scanned several hall lockers and vehicles on the school parking lot in the 8800 block of Guilford Road. Students were ordered to stay in classrooms during the surprise check, police said.
A small amount of suspected marijuana and a metal smoking pipe were recovered from one car. Officers arrested the car's owner, a 17-year-old from Columbia, while he attended a class at the Howard County School of Technology.
He was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Dogs also found four pipes with suspected marijuana residue in a wooded area that school administrators had thought was a place where students used drugs.
Police said the 15-year-old Savage boy was arrested minutes before the drug search when a teacher securing the building saw one student showing suspected marijuana to another. The teacher detained the youth, and police later confiscated a plastic bag containing one-half ounce of marijuana and charged the boy with possession of the drug.