CHARLEVOIX -- The American Civil Liberties Union says Charlevoix High School violated students constitutional rights when the school was put on lockdown during a vandalism investigation.

The ACLU sent the Superintendent and the Sheriff a letter about the inicident.

It says 400 kids were forced to stay in their classrooms for three hours without being able to go to the bathroom, and not being told what was going on during the May incident.

The ACLU says what they did was wrong, but the Superintendent and Sheriff say not so fast.    

"I'd like to think I'm the one to call the ACLU to begin with," says Dale Hull, who says the situation was dealt with poorly.

Hull says the way Charlevoix Public Schools High School handled an incident in May 2008 disregarded the students civil liberties.

"I was just astounded the children involved with this lockdown actually put up with it," Hull says.

Hull says the students didn't know what going on, why they were on lockdown for three hours and why they were interrogated.  That's why he got the ACLU involved, and in a letter, ACLU calls the actions unconstitutional.

"We don't consider it a lockdown, it didn't last three hours, and student's weren't barred from going to the bathroom, in fact, the students knew what was going on in the building," says Charlevoix Public Schools Superintendent Chet Janik.

Janik is the Superintendent of Charlevoix Public Schools.  Both the Superintendent and Charlevoix County Sheriff Don Schneider received a letter from the ACLU.

"We're very clear with our officers not to violate one's rights," says Charlevoix County Sheriff Don Schneider. 

"In this letter, they talk about the facts, but they're simply not accurate," says Janik.

Both the Sheriff and Superintendent say they wish the ACLU would have contacted them before releasing this letter.  I asked the Steve Morse of the ACLU why they didn't, and he says he thinks this letter will illicit a response.  The Sheriff and Superintendent say it absolutely will.

"I think all we really would have expected out of the school district is an apology, and acknowledgement that we don't really treat children this way in America, and we don't really expect to do that again," says Hull.

Sheriff Schneider says the letter was released at an interesting time.  The man who is going to trial for vandalizing the school will be in court in June.  Schneider says he thinks it's interesting the ACLU would release this letter before the trial, because of their stance on protecting the right to a fair trial.