Pubdate: Sat, 02 Jun 2007
Source: News Tribune, The (Tacoma, WA)
Copyright: 2007 Tacoma News Inc.
Contact:  http://www.thenewstribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/442
Author: Joseph Montes, The News Tribune
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

DRUG STING PRAISED, QUESTIONED

Surprise was the first reaction students had at Federal  Way's Todd
Beamer High School after hearing that two  police officers had walked
among them as peers for  seven months while building evidence for a
drug and gun  sales sting.

For many, the second reaction was relief.

Students of all grade levels said they appreciated  having two Federal
Way police officers -- a 28-year-old  woman and a 33-year-old man --
taking action against  what many perceived to be a serious drug
problem in  their school.

"I've seen it bad," said 17-year-old Justin Eley of the  amount of
drugs trafficked. "I'd prefer there to be  undercover cops here. It
makes me feel safe to know  there's someone watching over us."

Students interviewed Friday were frank about the  presence of
marijuana, Ecstasy, cocaine and  prescription medications in their
school. They're there  and openly discussed and gloated about in
hallways and  around lunch tables, students said.

"You see people coming to class all high," said Alyssa  Burrington, a
15-year-old freshman. "I had a friend  expelled (for selling Ecstasy)."

Thursday's sting led to felony charges -- of selling  drugs, weapons
or both -- against 12 students in three  of Federal Way's high
schools. One adult in his 20s was  charged.

Students at Todd Beamer High said there were no  disturbances in their
daily activities while the  arrests, some of which happened on school
grounds, took  place.

Some were disturbed to know, however, that seven months  had gone by
without their being notified of undercover  officers in their school.
Teachers were in the dark,  too.

"They didn't tell anyone. They don't actually go to our  school, and
they go to classes and socialize with us,"  said Keegan Claxton, a
15-year-old freshman. "It's a  little creepy."

Claxton was skeptical of the good that could come from  such
operations and whether it outweighed making  students uneasy. Serious
drug dealers are on the  streets, not in the schools, he said, adding
that  targeting student dealers doesn't get to the source of  the problem.

School district officials in Los Angeles, where  undercover police
work in schools was pioneered in the  1970s, share his criticisms.

For 30 years, the Los Angeles Police Department  conducted undercover
operations in schools. Many  amounted to small marijuana arrests, not
big drug  trafficker takedowns. Operations were canceled in 2005
after school officials said there was no evidence that  undercover
cops reduced the number of students using  drugs or made them less
available.

"In every high school, drugs are a big problem," said  Robin
Middleton, an 18-year-old Todd Beamer senior  who's in favor of having
undercover officers in school  as long as they remove drug dealers.
Middleton also  knows someone who had come to class high and been
expelled.

Many students said it would be easier if school  officials talked to
them to learn how drugs moved  through the school.

A common place where drugs are dealt is the student  parking lot,
students said. Only 100 yards from the  school's entrance, students
get high, smoke cigarettes  and sell drugs, they said. It's also a
place where they  go to skip class.

Inside the school, an area downstairs near a janitor's  closet is
popular. Eley said he's seen students  drinking there and once saw two
passing pills.

"That's a trouble area," he said, "Kids just hang out  and do a bunch
of weird stuff. It's not really  supervised."

Some dealers are even bolder. Charging papers filed  against those
arrested in Thursday's sting tell of a  student in Federal Way High
School selling drugs in  class while teachers gave
instruction.

An undercover officer asked the student if he could  "buy some smoke."
The student told him to sit near him  during class and then proceeded
to break up $5 worth of  marijuana behind a baseball cap in what the
report  described as "a poor attempt to conceal the drug transaction."

Many students watched, the report said.

Such a story doesn't surprise Todd Beamer junior Seth  Miller. Like
many of his peers, Miller, 16, is aware of  the drug problem at his
school, but he's torn about  whether undercover police are needed to
solve it. "It's  hard to wrap my head around it," he said. "I'll
definitely be thinking about it more."
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MAP posted-by: Derek