NEW BERLIN – Some Unadilla Valley secondary school students were discovered to be in possession of marijuana last week. But thanks to fast action by the school's principal, the guilty parties and the drugs were quickly handled.

According to Unadilla Valley Superintendent Bob Mackey, an investigation was started last Tuesday, Jan. 20, after some students came forward to High School Principal Frank Johnson with information about other students’ possession of marijuana. Due to confidentiality reasons, the names and ages of the involved students cannot be revealed.

Surveillance cameras installed around the school helped assist the principal in bringing the investigation to a quick conclusion. “Thanks to being able to track kids on security cameras throughout the building to see who was where – and when – our principal was able to track down the bulk of the students by late Wednesday afternoon,” said Mackey.

According to Mackey, the main investigation around the drugs was finished by Tuesday afternoon, with a couple of loose ends left to be tied up on Wednesday. There were also bystanders involved in the investigation – students that knew something was going on, but did not have the confidence, or were simply afraid to tell an adult, he said.

“The entire investigation – including bystanders being spoken to about doing the right thing rather than just being bystanders – was concluded by Friday of last week,” said Mackey. “We talked to them about choices, about doing the right thing.”

Despite the reluctance of students to come forward with information, some kids did go to the proper authorities with information. “They went right to the principal at approximately 2:35 p.m. on Tuesday,” said Mackey. “Once he had a couple of students come forward, he went to the area and was able to get confirmation of a locker where the drugs had been. He then went back and watched some videos and tracked where the students that were around that locker went. The second student brought in admitted to everything.”

“It was very quick in that sense,” said Mackey. “And then it was just finding out additional info ... Johnson really did a great job wrapping this up.”

As far as drugs go, Macky added, “We always try to find out where (students) got them, what they got them for, how they ended up in possession of them, where were they headed – that kind of thing. So we can find out if there are other individuals that need consequences.”