Pubdate: Thu, 09 May 2013
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2013 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830
Author: Sarah Burge

Temecula

SPECIAL-ED STUDENT USED AS DRUG STING 'BAIT,' PARENT SAYS

Without parental permission, an assistant principal recruited the
8th-grader to help catch a fellow student suspected of selling pot, a
claim says

A Temecula middle school assistant principal recruited a special
education student to pose as "bait" in an on-campus drug sting despite
his parents' objections, according to a claim for damages filed
against the school district this week.

"My husband and I were just dumbfounded. How is this OK?" the boy's
mother said. "My son has been labeled a snitch."

The woman said school officials' actions have put her son in a
dangerous position, and the fallout from his involvement in the drug
bust has taken a toll on her entire family.

The boy, who is in special education because he has a learning
disability, has been repeatedly threatened with violence, the mother
said.

The Press-Enterprise is not identifying the eighth-grade student or
the middle school - because the boy's parents fear for his safety.

Melanie Norton, a spokeswoman for the school district, said they are
reviewing the claim but did not comment further. Police confirmed they
arrested a youth at the school that day for marijuana possession.

This is at least the second claim filed against the district in as
many weeks involving a special education student and drug stings in
the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

The parents of a Chaparral High School student with autism, who was
accused of selling marijuana last year to an undercover Riverside
County sheriff's deputy, filed a claim that was rejected by the
district Tuesday, May 7. The parents said district officials
authorized the undercover sting and allowed their son to be hounded by
the deputy even though they knew he suffers from serious
disabilities.

Such claims are typically a precursor to lawsuits.

The new claim accuses school officials of "outrageous, reckless,
illegal and egregious conduct," alleging that they put the
eighth-grader in harm's way by involving him in an "unlawful
school-directed drug sting."

The incident cast the boy in a bad light among his peers, and exposed
him to drugs and "criminal elements," the claim says. The boy
afterward was subjected to bullying and harassment by other students
on and off campus, the claim alleges.

Kristi Rutz-Robbins, the school board president, declined to
comment.

PARENTS IGNORED

The boy's mother said an assistant principal concocted a plan last
semester to have her son help catch a fellow student who was suspected
of selling marijuana on campus. The assistant principal instructed the
boy to ask the student for marijuana and said she would secretly watch
the transaction.

When the boy went home that day, he told his mother about it. The
whole thing sounded so outrageous that, at first, she thought he was
joking, the mother said.

The boy had already asked his classmate to sell him the marijuana, she
said.

The mother said she called the school that day. The assistant
principal told her that they needed her son's help to catch a student
believed to be selling drugs.

"I said, 'No, absolutely not. That's not my family's problem ... Don't
you involve my son,'" the mother recalled.

Nevertheless, she said, the operation went ahead as planned the next
day. The assistant principal swooped in as the student presented
marijuana to the boy outside the school, the mother said.

Afterward, she said, school officials called the Sheriff's
Department.

Deputy Albert Martinez, a sheriff's spokesman, confirmed that a
13-year-old was arrested that day on suspicion of possession of
marijuana on school grounds. He said a school official had called to
report a student was found with marijuana, but the police report does
not include details about how the drugs were discovered.

HELD ACCOUNTABLE

The mother said she complained to school officials afterward but they
seemed to miss the point.

"They said, 'Oh, we're so proud of him,'" she said.

The whole scenario was unbelievable, the mother said.

"Since when did school officials become police officers?" she
asked.

The mother said she has tried to get a meeting with Superintendent Tim
Ritter, to no avail.

Eventually, the principal told her the school had let her son down and
promised to make things better, she said. But school officials have
done nothing, she added.

The woman said she and her husband want someone at the district
administration level to be held accountable for what happened to their
son.

"I don't want this to happen to anyone else," she said. "You can't
just go around having minors do this without parents' permission. This
is a dangerous thing."
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MAP posted-by: Matt