The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

Murray County

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  • Seth Bates

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March 6, 2010

North Murray students charged with pot possession

Weapon found in one’s vehicle

Mark Millican Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — Two North Murray High School students were arrested on campus Friday for having marijuana, and one of them was hit with a weapons charge after his car was searched.

Seth McKinley Bates, 17, of 5777 Highway 411 N. in Chatsworth, was charged by the Murray County Sheriff’s Office with possession of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school and carrying a deadly weapon (a knife) to school. Brandon Trace Burrell, 17, of 57737 Highway 411 N. in Chatsworth, was charged by the sheriff’s office with possession of marijuana within 1,000 feet of a school.

School resource officer Melissa Thurman said in an incident report she and assistant principal Keith Swilling searched the jacket Burrell was wearing after a teacher smelled what she thought was marijuana.

“When we looked in the pockets we found seeds and (a) leafy substance appearing to be marijuana loose in the pockets,” Thurman said. “We also conducted a search on a car belonging to Seth Bates, who Brandon rides to school with and also lives with at the time. Seth gave permission to search (and) myself, (Sgt.) Tim Bell, (school resource officer) Dennis Dentmon and Keith Swilling looked in (the) vehicle. I found ... loose marijuana seeds in (the) floorboard and console area (and) a leafy substance. I also found a knife longer than two inches long.”

An illegal “weapon” as defined in Georgia school safety laws includes any knife with a blade longer than two inches. Those laws say that each local school board shall “establish a policy requiring the expulsion from school of not less than one calendar year of any student who is determined ... to have brought a weapon to school.” The school board can also modify the expulsion requirement on a “case-by-case basis.”

Bates and Burrell will have a Magistrate Court bond appearance at the jail this morning.

This is the second local case this week involving a high school student being charged with possession of marijuana.

A Northwest High School student, Cody Dewight Brinkley, 18, of Tunnel Hill, was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of tools for the commission of a crime on that campus on Thursday. He was released on bond on Friday.

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