GOOSE CREEK, S.C. - Solicitor Ralph Hoisington asked state Attorney General Henry McMaster on Thursday to investigate whether any laws were broken when police swept through Stratford High School looking for drugs, pointing guns at students and ordering them to the floor.

The prosecutor said that after reviewing surveillance tapes and a 200-page State Law Enforcement Division report he has questions about the Nov. 5 incident.

"While I am confident the goals of the Goose Creek Police Department were appropriate, the actual methods employed by certain officers were ill-advised," Hoisington said.

Hoisington also asked SLED to share its investigation with the U.S. attorney's office and FBI to determine whether federal criminal violations occurred.

Surveillance cameras showed students on the floor while officers with guns drawn looked for drugs. Police checked 107 students and briefly restrained about a dozen.

Fourteen officers and a dog took part in the sweep in this bedroom community of about 29,000 about 20 miles northwest of Charleston.

School officials contacted police after reports of marijuana sales on the campus. Police said the dog sniffed drug residue on 12 book bags but found no drugs. No one was arrested.

Some parents have defended school officials for getting tough with drugs while others have criticized police tactics.

"We're talking about children. We're not talking about adults," said Sharon Smalls who said her son, a freshmen, had a gun pointed at his head. "It should never be acceptable for an adult. You go to jail if you point a gun at somebody."

Hoisington said he was "appalled" when he saw the videotapes. "The students are not at war with the police and it shouldn't appear that way," he said.

He said he could not conclude with certainty the police actions were legally justified. Because has to prosecute cases brought by the local police, Hoisington said he asked McMaster to investigate.

The attorney general could conduct his own investigation or assign the matter to another prosecutor from another part of the state, Hoisington said.

The attorney general's office had not received the information or SLED's report as of Thursday, said spokesman Trey Walker. There was no timetable for when a decision would be made, he said.

Mayor Michael Heitzler said town officials were upset by the video of the drug sweep broadcast nationwide.

"I know what the images are. I don't know what the cause of the images are," he said, adding there has been no disciplinary action against any police offices.

"Because the investigation has not been concluded, I haven't come to any premature judgments about any personnel action," he said.

He said the town will learn from the experience and is contacting other towns and cities to see how they deal with drugs in schools.

Smalls, who attended Hoisington's news conference, objected to sending the probe to McMaster.

"Everybody is pushing it off on somebody else. Nobody can make a decision to say whether it's right or wrong," she said.

Tina Penn said her son had a gun pointed at his chest during the sweep and is now having trouble sleeping and doesn't want to go to school.

"I'm scared for him to go to school. These students are taught to respect the principal, respect their teachers, respect police officers. It's very difficult."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson visited neighboring North Charleston for what organizers called a rally against police violence.

"There is the national disgrace of children having guns in their faces on a drug bust that ends up with no drugs," Jackson told reporters. "This issue is really more about wrong and right than black and white. People of good will black and white must say no to that kind of behavior toward children."

"Those policemen in Goose Creek should have asked themselves 'If I was a student, would I want this to happen to me?' " said state Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston. "If the answer is no, why are they doing it?"

Ford said the sweep was conducted early in the morning when mostly black students were at the school.

"That's racial profiling. If they went at 8 o'clock, everybody would be happy. Not with the tactics, but with the fact they went at a time when all the kids were in school - black kids and white kids," he said.

The rally was to respond to the sweep as well as last month's fatal shooting in North Charleston of a mentally ill man. Police said they fired to subdue the man, who stabbed an officer. The officer was wearing a protective vest and was uninjured.