When people are arrested for not committing a crime, but because they remind people of a crime, then the country is no longer a free country.
It is punishment by process, and it happens a lot.
Very likely, the school administration lied in order to cover up their problems. Then the police were complicit in confiscating evidence that was contrary to what was being put out in public.
Local elites protect their own. The principal, as a minority woman, holds special crybully status.