Students searched at gunpoint during a drug raid at a South Carolina high school will share in a $1.2-million settlement from the school district and police department that conducted the search, the Associated Press reported April 4.

The Goose Creek police department and the Berkeley County School District were sued by 59 students and their families after the 2003 raid, in which students were forced to lay on the floor during a search by police with drawn weapons and accompanied by drug-sniffing dogs. No drugs were found and no arrests were made.

The principal of the school resigned amid the ensuring furor over the search.

The settlement plan given preliminary approval by a federal judge would pay $11,370 each to the students who sued or required mental or medical treatment as a result of the incident. Students who were present in school hallways during the search would each receive $6,025.

The students claimed their constitutional rights had been violated. State district attorney Henry McMaster said police should not have drawn their weapons but said no criminal laws had been broken during the search.