Officers Say 13-Year-Old Had Cocaine In Middle School

Rock Hill police said a 13-year-old boy was trying to sell a bag of cocaine to a fellow student in one of the school's bathrooms Thursday morning.

A tip from a student led the school's police resource officer to a bathroom, where he hid while waiting for the drug deal to go down.

The Baldwin family didn't know about the cocaine bust until Eyewitness News showed them the police report from Thursday. The Baldwins have two kids attending Rawlinson Road Middle School, a seventh-grader and eighth-grader.

"I'm just shocked," said Suzy Baldwin.

"It surprises me when it gets this close to home," said Tim Baldwin.

Students said it was the big talk in the hallways during school on Friday.

"It's like wow, you come to school thinking it's a safe place, and you have people selling drugs in the bathroom," said seventh grader Jacob Phelan.

A school spokeswoman said in her 40 years working for the district, they've never had to deal with cocaine at the middle school level.

"To be honest with you, I might not have been as surprised if it was a high school, older students. But a middle school student? You don't hear that. You don't hear that," said Rock Hills spokeswoman Elaine Baker. "This is disappointing, because we don't have students that young, with cocaine, or anything like that. This is new to me," Baker added.

She said the two students have already been suspended for three days, and she said more severe punishments will be handed down once the police department finishes its investigation.

We asked the Baldwins' 12-year-old son if it surprised him that a drug deal was attempted in his school's bathroom.

"Yes, it does, because there's a lot of good people at Rawlinson Road," said Miles Baldwin. "I don't see anybody doing drugs there."

Miles said he'd also tell his teachers if he saw drugs on school grounds. He said it'd be the right thing to do.

Police are not releasing the names of the two students because of their ages. Eyewitness News left messages with police asking how the 13-year-old student got the cocaine in the first place, but havent heard back.