Profile of Le'Quan Simpson

Le’Quan Simpson, age 14, is a 9th grader at Stratford High School. During the drug raid on November 5, 2003, Le’Quan was held at gunpoint by Goose Creek Police and detained in the main hallway of the school for the entirety of the search on his knees, facing the wall. Le’Quan feels betrayed by the police and worries that he will always be watched by them. As he walks to school in the mornings, he often remembers the details of the raid and wonders if the police will come in and do it again.

His father, Elijah Simpson, has served as a Deputy Sheriff and on local SWAT Teams for a total of five years. Elijah was surprised that the Goose Creek Police employed SWAT-style tactics at Stratford High School.

“”They hit that school like it was a crack house, like they knew that there were crack dealers in there armed with guns,”” said Elijah. “”This was clearly a no-shoot situation no matter how you look at it. A school drug raid is not a SWAT situation, but that’s how the Goose Creek police handled it.””

Elijah emphasized that the way in which the Goose Creek police made their entrance and secured the hallway – as seen in a school surveillance video of the incident replayed on national television – created an unnecessarily dangerous situation.

“”It was crossfire just waiting to happen. If one door slammed, one student dropped a book or screamed, and then those guns would have gone off all over the place. Did you see the way they were swinging those guns around? That’s not how you do it.””