DRUG-RELATED STING PLAYS OUT AT MIRA MESA HIGH

Undercover work leads to arrests of 10 students

San Diego police ended a three-month sting at Mira Mesa High School
yesterday when narcotics detectives arrested 10 students on suspicion of
selling drugs on campus to an undercover officer who had posed as a
12th-grader.

Shortly after classes started for the day, about 30 officers, including
school district police, rounded up the students, handcuffed them and took
them to a command post a quarter-mile away for booking.

Eight of those arrested were taken to Juvenile Hall. Two others, both 18,
were taken to jail. A third 18-year-old student was being sought.

During the operation, which began at the start of the semester Jan. 26, the
youthful appearing 22-year-old undercover officer made 13 narcotics buys
from 11 students, said Capt. Cheryl Meyers of the Police Department's
narcotics section.

"All of the purchases were hand-to-hand sales, either facilitated or
negotiated on campus," Meyers said. "The undercover operative bought a
total of 69 grams of marijuana, seven tabs of LSD and 0.8 grams of
methamphetamine."

Meyers said the operation was to have run through the end of the school
year in June but was abruptly ended for reasons she would not disclose.

Some students, who gathered in small groups to discuss the arrests at
midmorning, said they believed that the undercover officer -- one student
called him "the snitch in our midst" -- was pulled out of the school
because his identity was becoming known.

"For a while, there has been buzz about a cop tricking as a student here,"
one 11th-grader said.

Between January 1984 and April 1990, police arrested 340 students in 15
drug roundups on 12 campuses in the San Diego Unified School District.
Yesterday's were the first in eight years and marked renewed publicity of
the district's "zero tolerance" policy.

Eleven students were arrested in a similar operation at Mira Mesa High in 1984.

Meyers said such arrests were curtailed after 1990, in part because such
operations are among the most difficult for an undercover officer, who has
to look and act like a student.

Drug users on campuses form a "very tough subculture for undercover
officers to penetrate," Meyers said.

The student-officer at Mira Mesa High was able to infiltrate student groups
and cliques, gaining confidence and friendship while attending regular
classes and other school functions.

He befriended students, especially those known for getting into trouble,
Principal Rachel Flanagan said.

"We had no idea who he was," she said. "He looked like a kid. We joked that
it was a good thing we didn't have him suspended before this happened."

"This certainly doesn't single out Mira Mesa as a bad school." (But it)
"sends a message to students that if they break zero tolerance policies
they will be arrested and they will lose the privilege of attending Mira
Mesa High School," the principal said.

Narcotics and patrol officers, along with intelligence gathered off the
street and elsewhere, helped authorities target Mira Mesa High.

"We were also concerned that the drug activity continued even after Mira
Mesa High became a closed campus, along with other city schools," Meyers
said.

No other operations now are believed to be under way, but more could be
planned, police said.

Only two school district officials were aware of the Mira Mesa operation,
which was a year in the planning, said Tom Hall, chief of police for the
district.

The Police Department ran the operation, but the district paid particular
attention to the way students were treated by the undercover officer.

"Entrapment is a big concern," Hall said. "We were watching this every step
of the way. We heard about everything, every conversation the (undercover
officer) had with students."

Hall said the district welcomes the Police Department's renewed interest in
cracking down on drug sales on campus. He declined to say whether any of
the district's 15 other high schools have been targeted.

"All I can say is that the schools represent the community," he said.
"There are drugs at school because there are drugs in the community."

The school will send letters to parents detailing yesterday's arrests, and
teachers will talk with students in class today about the raid and zero
tolerance policies.

Five of the teen-agers arrested yesterday had transferred to Mira Mesa High
after being kicked out of their neighborhood schools for behavior problems.
Just two of those arrested were from the Mira Mesa neighborhood.

The adults arrested are Zane Zimmerman, on suspicion of methamphetamine
sales; and David Garcia, on suspicion of sales of LSD.

The students will be suspended for five days -- with a recommendation for
expulsion -- pending a hearing before a discipline panel. The state
Education Code requires the district to expel students for selling drugs at
school.

The punishment for selling drugs includes an expulsion for the rest of this
semester and both semesters next year. During any expulsion, the students
would be transferred to the Summit School, a county program for troubled
youths.

Copyright 1998 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.