A weed grows at
Brooklyn school



BY JIMMY VIELKIND and KATHLEEN LUCADAMO
DAILY NEWS WRITERS


Officials at Paul Robeson High in Brooklyn say they found pot growing in planter.

No wonder they call it Robeson High.
A marijuana plant was found firmly rooted in a flower bed in the courtyard of Paul Robeson High School in Brooklyn yesterday, school officials said.

Assistant Principal Winston McCarthy ripped the leafy pot plant from a wooden container outside the Bedford-Stuyvesant school at 11:20 a.m. - leaving behind a heap of dirt amidst the black-eyed Susans, purple cornflowers and tickseed.

All the plants were labeled - except for the marijuana.

"That's crazy," said Brandon Gibbs, 15, a junior who was attending summer school at Robeson. "I wouldn't expect that but look at the neighborhood we are in."

Education Department officials said they don't know who planted the pot at the Albany Ave. school or when it first sprouted. They said cops were investigating the matter. McCarthy handed over the weed to officers from the 77th Precinct.

"Anyone could have put it out there," said a longtime teacher who asked not to be named.

"The seed could have just blown in," he said in between giggles.

Keisha Jones, a 17-year-old student at nearby Boys and Girls High School, said she wouldn't have called cops if she had found the illegal grass. "I would have taken it," she said. "Everyone smokes nowadays."

But Rodney Cannon, 22, a former Robeson student, said the discovery highlights how much the struggling school needs help.

Last year, only 55% of Robeson's students graduated in four years.

"They need to have more security," Cannon said. "It takes time for weed to grow."