OFFICER'S UNDERCOVER 'SCHOOLWORK' NETS 16 ARRESTS

PORT ST. LUCIE -- An undercover St. Lucie County Sheriff's deputy in his
mid-20s attended two Port St. Lucie high schools for the past six months,
struggling through algebra, going to parties and gathering information that
led to the arrest of 16 students Wednesday, most on drug charges.

Sheriff Ken Mascara said the undercover case, named Operation Safe Kid, was
the first of its kind in St. Lucie County and will expand to other district
schools. He initiated the program last summer after hearing parents
complain that kids at local schools "were doing everything but learning."

With a fictitious address and law enforcement officers posing as parents,
the deputy registered for his senior year at Port St. Lucie High at the
beginning of the school year as a transfer student, then moved to St. Lucie
West Centennial High after the holiday break.

St. Lucie County schools Superintendent Bill Vogel was the only district
official who knew the deputy's identity -- teachers, counselors, even
principals all believed he was a real student. He took African-American
history, pottery, P.E. and algebra, Mascara said, relying on other deputies
to help him with frustrating math problems.

"The algebra was really kicking his butt," Mascara said.

The unnamed deputy, a convincing-looking 18, hung out with students during
and after school, carefully documenting the classmates who sold him
marijuana, ecstasy and cocaine.

At Centennial, a 17-year-old student from Port St. Lucie led the deputy to
an off-campus meeting with James Emery Clark, 23, of 365 Airoso Blvd., who
offered to sell him a.38-caliber pistol with its serial number scratched
off. Clark was arrested Wednesday on drug and weapons charges, authorities
said.

Teams of deputies went to the two schools Wednesday morning, where
administrators quietly pulled the suspects from class and walked them to
conference rooms. They were told they could call their parents and were
notified of the charges against them, which included possession of ecstasy,
unlawfully filling a prescription, sale and delivery of cocaine, and
cultivation of marijuana.

Sixteen students were arrested, all charged with at least one felony, and
deputies were looking for three more Wednesday night.

"I think they were all in shock," Chief Deputy Garry Wilson said.

But the charges, which reflect crime patterns school resource officers have
seen for years, were not news to anyone in law enforcement or the schools.

"I am disappointed, but not really surprised," Centennial Principal James
Sullivan said.

His school reported 30 incidents of alcohol, drugs and tobacco on campus
during the past school year. Port St. Lucie High reported 69.

Principals told teachers at the end of the school day Wednesday and sent
letters home with students explaining Operation Safe Kid and that the
schools were selected randomly from the district's five high schools.

The letter asked parents to talk with their children about the consequences
of illegal activities.

Sullivan said he hopes the sheriff's office will continue placing
undercover deputies in the schools without notifying school officials. They
can help keep students safe by alerting authorities when they hear the
first rumors of possible violence, he said.

Students had mixed reactions to the disguised deputy.

"I thought it was a good idea because they caught a lot of people," Port
St. Lucie High freshman Timothy Clinton said on his way home from school.
Students know there are problems with drugs on campus, he said.

But student Maritza Aguilera disagreed, saying that even though the
deputies have to catch offenders, doing so secretly could violate students'
trust.

"It's kind of like an invasion of privacy," she said. "Maybe one of your
best friends, would be like, an undercover working for the school or
something."

Of the 16 students arrested Wednesday, three from Port St. Lucie are over
18: James Edward Kumas, charged with possession and sale of MDMA, also
known as ecstasy; Joe Catalano, on the same charges; and John Conrad
Goodbred, charged with sale and delivery of marijuana.

Clark was the only non-student arrested.

Vogel said he hopes the revelation that students have been mingling with a
deputy will inspire a healthy sense of paranoia. The belief that any
student could be an agent of the sheriff's office will make them more
reluctant to deal drugs, he said.

Mascara was especially proud of the deputy's endurance, working long hours
to perform two jobs, one as a student, one as a deputy.

"Let's face it, high school was tough enough the first time around," Wilson
said.

Even so, the deputy did well enough in his classes, Mascara said.

"He was passing everything the last time we got a report card."