KELVIN HIGH'S SCHOOL DAZE

Who You Gonna Trust After The Bust?

Life will never be the same at Kelvin High.

And how could it, after a cop covertly slithered her way into the social
fabric of the school's student body, posing as a run-of-the-mill pupil to
nab a ring of low-level drug dealers?

The rules of teen-age life have changed at Kelvin High. The universe has
shifted.

Guys will forever wonder if it's safe to invite that charming new lass to a
weekend bash or if she'll unexpectedly yank a police badge from her
knapsack and bust them at a Saturday night house party.

Girls will now be a little suspicious about that new hunk on the track
team, wondering if he's really a student or a boyish-looking cop carrying
out a clandestine operation to rid the school of illicit drugs.

These may be some of the thoughts going through the minds of Kelvin High
School students after an undercover police officer busted nine students --
aged 14 to 17 -- for drug trafficking there last week.

The cop posed as a new student and attended nine days of classes.

Even the teachers didn't know she was a police officer.

ACADEMY AWARD PERFORMANCE

She must have been a terrific actress to blend in with a group of teens,
gain their trust and repeatedly buy drugs from them undetected.

And she must look awfully young for her age.

There's gotta be more than a few Kelvin High students feeling a bit weird
about all this.

I mean, some of them must have befriended this cop and are probably floored
at how easily they were taken in by a police officer.

What an invasion of their sacred teenage world.

It's one thing to bring uniformed cops into schools for security reasons.

But to plant a police officer in a classroom and have her masquerade as a
student? Now that's pretty scary stuff, especially if you're a student who
occasionally finds himself on the wrong side of the law -- underage
drinking? Drug use?

But even for students who boast a clean slate, this whole affair must be a
little unsettling.

BOSOM BUDDY WITH A NARC

Imagine if you're a 16-year-old, you meet a new student in school and you
hit it off really well. After a couple of weeks, you may be swapping
personal stories, the kind you wouldn't dare share with an adult -- last
week's house party? Sexual experiences?

And then, whammo. Turns out your new soul mate is a cop in her late 20s.

You'd never be able to trust the new kid on the block again.

We live in a cloak-and-dagger world.

Cops posing as students in classrooms; high-tech cameras catching drivers
run red lights; private investigators secretly stalking insurance claimants
and videotaping their every move.

Heck, you can't even walk into a convenience store and buy a beef jerky
these days without ending up on videotape.

We have swipe cards that gather information about our buying habits. And
we're subjected to marketing firms that trade database lists detailing how
many magazines we buy per year, how many children we have and what our
average rate of respiration is after 15 minutes on the tread mill.

Big Brother is watching us all the time. And there seems to be fewer places
to hide these days than ever before.

Just ask the students at Kelvin High.