Pubdate: Sun, 29 Feb 2004
Source: Winston-Salem Journal (NC)
Copyright: 2004 Piedmont Publishing Co. Inc.
Contact:  http://www.journalnow.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/504
Author: J. Railey
Note: The Journal does not publish letters from writers outside its daily
home delivery circulation area.
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n229/a07.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)

DRUGS IN SCHOOLS: ARE UNDERCOVER OPERATIONS THE NEXT STEP?

Marty Luffman Spends His Days In A Subculture: An American High School.

Luffman, a deputy with the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office, is the
school resource officer at West Forsyth High School in Clemmons. He
cracks down on a variety of offenses, ranging from students speeding
through the school parking lot to students fighting.

And he tries to stop drug use, which goes on at West Forsyth and so
many other high schools across this land. "If it's in the community,
it's going to be in the school," he says.

The problem came to the forefront this month with the arrests of about
50 students from six high schools in nearby Alamance County through a
controversial sting operation.

A 21-year-old police officer posed as a 17-year-old student,
befriending high schoolers and buying drugs from them. The defendants,
as well as many of their parents, are loudly objecting to the
subterfuge used in the operation.

Forsyth County Sheriff Bill Schatzman says there's no evidence that
the drug problem here is big enough to warrant such a sting operation,
but he'd mount one if he had to. Don Martin, the superintendent of
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, says he'd trust the sheriff's
judgment if Schatzman saw the need for such an investigation.

The prospect of such investigations is chilling. But not that much
more than 10 years ago, the idea of armed deputies and police officers
in uniform routinely patrolling school halls and checking for drugs,
sometimes with dogs, seemed chilling and very strange as well. It's a
common sight now.

And we parents allow this intrusion that we would have surely chafed
against when we were in high school. We allow it because of Columbine
and all the school shootings that followed. We allow it because we
know drugs are more common in our children's schools than they were in
most of ours. We allow it because we know that many of our children
exist in a subculture with its own language and clothes that shuts us
out, just as many of us shut out our parents in high school.

Luffman, like the other 25 deputies assigned to county schools, wears
a uniform that clearly marks him as the law, but he's still had some
success at penetrating that subculture. He's gotten to know many of
the more than 2,100 students at West Forsyth in the last three years.

Nobody's saying that there's any huge drug problem there or at the
rest of Forsyth's schools. Deputies say they investigated 145
drug-related incidents from January 2003 to December, a small figure
when you consider that there are about 25,000 students in the county's
middle and high schools.

Some of those students indicate in recent surveys that they see more
drugs off campus than on. Either way, school officials concentrate on
prevention efforts such as education about the dangers of drugs.

Yet despite the best efforts of administrators and teachers, drugs are
in the schools. They range from minuscule amounts in elementary
schools to a little more in middle schools to a lot more in high schools.

At West Forsyth, Luffman sits in his cruiser and watches for strange
cars in the parking lot, ones that might belong to visitors bringing
in drugs. He checks vacant lockers, making sure students aren't
dumping stolen property or drugs in them. He checks bathrooms, making
sure students aren't smoking tobacco or pot in the stalls. "You got
your few knuckleheads, they'll do it in the school," he says.

And he talks to students. "How ya doing?" he asks with a firm and
friendly smile as he walks through the halls in his black fatigues.

Some regard him sullenly. Others say "hi" back. A few come to him in
confidence with stories about other students who are using drugs or
selling them. "The kids have gotten to know they can trust me," says
Luffman, who is 36.

Like his department's other school resource officers, he doesn't have
a bunch of big busts to his credit. About 10 for this school year, he
says, mainly for possessing small amounts of marijuana. Those busted
have faced suspension, juvenile court and drug-treatment programs.
Maybe he's turned a few around, Luffman hopes.

He knows about ones he hasn't, ones who've ended up getting busted on
the streets and gotten real time. So he keeps working. "I know there's
a bunch doing drugs I don't know about," Luffman says.

He'd be glad, he says, if officers in schools weren't needed, if the
problems of drugs and violence on school grounds would somehow
magically vanish.

So would we all. But the problems aren't disappearing. So we go to our
children's schools and warmly greet officers like Luffman. The time
has long passed when these officers seemed strange to see in the schools.

We're used to them. We can only hope it never gets so bad that we get
just as used to undercover operations in schools.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin