Adlai E. Stevenson High School in north suburban Lincolnshire regularly gets acclaim as one of the nation's top schools.
But the roughly 4,000 students of the prestigious high school on Wednesday found themselves getting attention for dubious reasons, with a drug investigation sweeping through the school.
From September through late-December, drug sales were carried out on campus, according to Jim Conrey, the school's Public Information Coordinator.
"A variety of drugs were involved, but the main drug was marijuana," he said.
Conrey confirmed the arrest of one student and the suspension of others. He refused to divulge the specific number of students disciplined, citing student privacy policies and an ongoing law enforcement investigation.
"Anything more than one (student involved), is too many," he said.
Conrey said administrators and law enforcement received "credible evidence" of the drug activity in late-December and subsequently confiscated student cell phones to carry out the investigation and identify suspects.
An anti-drug curriculum is a significant component of a class at Stevenson called "Health Education," which most students take as sophomores and is a graduation requirement.
Conrey stressed that as hard as Stevenson tries to educate its students about the dangers of drugs, the school -- even with its outstanding academic reputation -- is not immune to "societal problems."
"Every high school in the Chicago area has any number of students who chose to go down the wrong path," said Conrey.
