In Development
The Preppie Connection
Synopsis
Based on a true story
ED BRADLEY: Last spring, a student at one of America's most prestigious prep schools, Choate Rosemary Hall, was arrested by police at Kennedy Airport as he was returning from Venezuela with $300,000 worth of cocaine. What wasn't known at the time was that perhaps as many as 50 out of a total of a thousand of his schoolmates had chipped in more than $5,000 to get in on the Venezuelan coke buy. What also wasn't known is that it wasn't the first time that student had gone to Venezuela to buy drugs for his schoolmates.
BRADLEY: For almost a hundred years, Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford Connecticut has drawn students form the top ranks of American society and prepared them to be leaders--John F. Kennedy and Adlai Stevenson among them. It offers the best education money can buy.
BRADLEY: On Good Friday of Easter weekend, a student left his Meriden, Connecticut home with about $5,000 of his schoolmates' money. He told his parents he was going to visit a friend in upstate New York. Instead he came down here to Caracas, Venezuela; and, using his classmates' money, checked into the best hotel in town for the long Easter weekend. His girlfriend from Choate, 18-year-old Cathy Cowan, was with him. They lounged by the pool during the day and, at night, drank at the bar and danced to the Latin rhythms.
BRADLEY: Was it difficult to raise the money?
Student: No. No. I-- I didn't have to go asking people for money. I mean, everyone knew what was going on...people came to me, and money was no problem.
BRADLEY: This student was not your average Choate student. He was a day student on scholarship. His father services vending machines and his mother teaches at a local public school.
BRADLEY: Why did you agree to do it?
STUDENT: It gave me social status. It gave me a lot of attention. I really thought the risk wasn’t that great, and it was a neat little adventure.
BRADLEY: Did that make you a “big shot” at Choate?
STUDENT: For a real short time, I suppose.
BRADLEY: Did anyone come to you and say, “Don’t do this; this is crazy?”
STUDENT: Someone—someone came to me and pulled me aside and said, “Are you sure you want to do this? Think about this, what can happen to you, and you can go to jail… but the next day, they gave me money; so, no one was really that serious.
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