By Kathryn Reed

For the second time this calendar year a security guard at South Tahoe High School has been arrested.

The latest arrest was of Larry Brown on Nov. 6. The 63-year-old was pulled over by an El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy on a routine traffic stop. The smell of freshly burned marijuana allegedly spewed from the vehicle.

In the passenger seat was a 16-year-old female STHS student.

The District Attorney’s Office received the report yesterday and expects to review the case next week and determine what charges are likely to be filed against Brown.

“Possession of marijuana on a highway is a fine only. The other stuff is potentially extremely serious,” Hans Uthe, assistant district attorney, told Lake Tahoe News today.

The sheriff’s report recommends Brown be charged with transportation of marijuana, selling the illegal substance and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Brown has posted bail.

The teenager was released to her parents. She reportedly told deputies the two had been at Pope Beach drinking beer and smoking pot.

The vehicle was pulled over about 3pm last Friday near the Y in South Lake Tahoe.

STHS Principal Ivone Larson deferred comments to the district office. Superintendent Jim Tarwater is out today.

Human Resources Manager Jim Watson said the district is reviewing the case to determine what action will be taken against the employee. Watson would not say if Brown was on paid or unpaid leave.

This means South Tahoe High is down to two security guards, plus South Lake Tahoe police Officer Scott Willson. Willson is the school resource officer. The other security guards are employees of the school district and don’t carry weapons. To be hired, a background check is done. A state certification is also required, which entails 24 hours of training.

Last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that takes effect July 1, 2010, mandating anyone who supervises a school club or is a coach must obtain an “Activity Supervisor Clearance Certificate” from the Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Fingerprinting is part of that process, as well as state and federal criminal records reports from the Department of Justice. How this relates to guards is not known.

Such checks can prevent a district from hiring someone with an unsavory past, but do nothing to prevent someone from committing a crime after being hired.

Lake Tahoe Unified School District keeps finding this out.

The other STHS security guard arrested this year was Irma Torres Salazar, 22. She was convicted in the spring on misdemeanor charges of interfering with the investigation of a gang related beating.

Karsten Gronwold was arrested four days before the first day of school in 2006 after teaching in the district since 1990. The former magnet school teacher was sentenced in 2008 to eight years in federal prison on child pornography charges.

Last month he was sentenced to three years in state prison. That sentence for committing a lewd act on a child will run concurrent with his federal time.

A district psychologist had marijuana charges dropped against her in May 2008, but her employment with LTUSD was severed.