MANY STUDENTS IN STING GET PROBATION

GRAHAM -- Slightly fewer than half of the Alamance County students
arrested in February on charges of selling drugs to undercover police
officers have been sentenced, with most of them receiving three years
of supervised probation.

All but one of the nine students charged as juveniles pleaded guilty,
District Attorney Rob Johnson said. The juvenile who was tried was
found guilty, Johnson said.

Twelve students charged as adults also pleaded guilty to drug charges
in a series of hearings in Alamance County District Court this month.

Two of those students, who had criminal records, were sentenced to
spend three weekends in jail in addition to the three years of probation.

"We've made a good solid start on it," Johnson said. "So far things
are going on track."

Twenty-nine other students facing charges have chosen to go to trial.
Those trials are scheduled to start in April.

The students arrested in the sweep received long-term suspensions,
which means they can't return to regular classes until next fall,
provided they're still students then. This week, the
Alamance-Burlington school board finished hearing appeals of the
suspensions. Twelve students appealed the suspensions, but in every
case the board upheld the suspension, school system spokeswoman Becky
Shoffner said.

Most students who were arrested were given the option of attending an
alternative educational program in the evening that would allow them
to continue to earn academic credits toward graduation, provided they
agreed to attend drug counseling. Of the students who were suspended,
41 were qualified to enter the program and 37 of them did, Shoffner
said.

In addition to the students arrested in the Feb. 4 sweep, Alamance
County sheriff's deputies and police from Burlington and Graham also
have arrested at least nine nonstudents implicated during the
undercover investigation.

Two of them have pleaded guilty and been sentenced to 36 months
supervised probation. Besides probation, most of the students and
nonstudents also were required to pay various legal fees, fines and
court costs, and to attend drug treatment programs as conditions of
their probation.

Last August, undercover officers working for the Alamance County
Sheriff's Department and the Burlington and Graham police departments
enrolled as students at all six Alamance County high schools and the
county's alternative school, the Sellars-Gunn Education Center. The
officer working at Western Alamance High School had his cover blown,
but the other six officers made drug buys, mostly of small amounts of
marijuana, in school classrooms and hallways, as well as off campus.

In a handful of cases, the undercover officers bought prescription
drugs, Ecstasy and cocaine. Most of the arrests stem from a single
drug sale, though a few students sold drugs on more than one occasion.

The undercover operation, dubbed Operation Safe Schools, was planned
last spring, when Superintendent James Merrill asked local law
enforcement for help with a drug problem in the schools.

School system surveys of school staff and parents indicated that drugs
were a growing concern on Alamance-Burlington campuses. Other than
Merrill and the school system's attorney, school system employees
weren't aware of the operation while it was happening.

UPDATE So far: Fifty Alamance County students and several nonstudents
were arrested in early February on charges of selling drugs to
undercover officers last fall. The latest: Twenty-one students pleaded
guilty to the charges, with most of them receiving probation. One
juvenile pleaded not guilty and was tried and found guilty. Twelve
students appealed their long-term suspensions, but the
Alamance-Burlington School System board rejected the appeals. What's
next: Trials for the remaining students, including former Eastern
Alamance High School basketball standout JamesOn Curry, are scheduled
to start in April.