ALAMANCE DEALS WITH AFTERMATH OF BUST

Students Say February Raids Making A Dent In Drug Use, Dealing

BURLINGTON - Schools in this suburban county east of Greensboro and west of
Durham had become like pharmacies.

Undercover investigators who infiltrated high schools could easily purchase
just about any drug -- from cocaine, morphine, valium and the prescription
painkiller OxyContin to an extra-strong strain of marijuana.

An undercover officer who has been identified only as "Bobby" entered
Graham High School posing as a transfer student earlier this academic year
and was approached by another student on his first day of classes.

"The next question is something to the effect of, `Have you done (drugs)?'
" said Randy Jones, a spokesman for the Alamance County Sheriff's Office.
"The student said, `I can hook you up.' "

An investigation that began with the start of school last August climaxed
with a Feb. 4 sweep of six of the county's high schools in which 50
students were arrested. As undercover officers watched, money and drugs
changed hands in a classroom as the teacher was writing on the blackboard,
in hallways, bathrooms and in school parking lots.

"The availability was alarming to us," Jones said.

Among those arrested was the county's best-known teenager, Eastern Alamance
basketball star JamesOn Curry.

Curry, who holds the state's career scoring record, has committed to play
basketball starting next year at UNC Chapel Hill. But his scholarship has
been jeopardized by multiple drug charges, including two felony counts of
possession with intent to sell marijuana.

"He was JamesOn Curry. Nobody could touch him," said William Arnette,
himself a four-sport athlete at Eastern Alamance whose career as a track
and cross country performer was cut short in his senior year because of leg
injuries.

Curry was kicked off the team after his arrest. UNC officials, including
basketball coach Roy Williams, have not said whether they plan to rescind
his scholarship.

Also arrested in the sweep were two of Curry's teammates and several
football players for various county high school teams, as well as many
non-athletes.

Curry's lawyer, Dawn Allen, did not return phone calls seeking comment and
an interview with Curry, whose next court appearance is scheduled Monday.

Arnette spoke while with his girlfriend, Lauren Burnette, at a local church
outing at Country Club Lanes, a Burlington bowling alley in a strip mall
that once was considered a hangout for drug users and sellers.

Workers at a grocery store next to the bowling alley said customers shunned
the store on weekends, fearing for their safety.

Eastern Alamance student Zachary Brady, 16, said he's noticed a change at
school since the raid.

"Everybody's just quit. They realized how bad it was and they just stopped
doing it, pretty much from what I've seen," Brady said. "I haven't seen
many people smoking cigarettes or anything lately."

Matthew Crane, 16, is a sophomore at Orange High School in Hillsborough,
not far from Eastern Alamance. He said shock from what happened in Alamance
had reached across county lines.

"Everybody's kind of cautious now," said Crane, taking a break from his job
at a McDonald's off Interstate 85 in Mebane.

"The people who even look like they're doing drugs, people just stay away
from them and they're kind of like the outcast group now," Crane added.
"After (the Alamance bust), everybody got the idea that they might do it at
our schools now. Everybody's keeping a good eye out."

Burlington-Alamance Schools Superintendent James Merrill has declined all
media requests for interviews since the raid. But Jones, of the Alamance
Sheriff's Office, said it resulted from three years of interviews with
current and former students in the Burlington-Alamance system.

"The school system needs to be commended. This was not a knee-jerk
response," Jones said. "I think the school system sent a message that we're
not going to tolerate this type of availability."

Marguerite Peebles, a section chief in the state Department of Public
Instruction, said one of the most striking things about the Alamance case
is how extensive the drug problem became without adults having widespread
knowledge of it.