Yesterday, one year and one day after several armed police officers rushed into our autistic son’s classroom at Chaparral High School in Temecula, CA, handcuffed him in front of his classmates, took him away, medically probed him, interrogated him without a lawyer, booked him, and then locked him up, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department has done it again, this time, about 20 miles down the road.
About two dozen students were arrested Thursday morning, Dec. 12, at high schools in Menifee and Perris as part of a semester-long undercover drug investigation in which deputies posed as students, authorities said.
Deputies descended on the campuses of Paloma Valley High School and Perris High School during second period to make the arrests, Riverside County sheriff’s officials said.
Lt. Paul Bennett said deputies identified a total of 25 students, two of whom are adults, suspected of selling drugs. Officers served 22 drug-related arrest warrants on campus Thursday. Three suspects weren’t in school Thursday and are still at large, he said.
[...]
Two deputies – a woman at Perris and a man at Paloma – had been posing as students since the beginning of the school year in an attempt to ferret out drug dealing on campus. Over the course of the investigation, deputies seized drugs including marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, hashish and various prescription pills, the release said. Lt. Paul Bennett said most of the drug buys were for small amounts of marijuana.
[...]
Last year, the investigation focused on Chaparral and Temecula Valley high schools in Temecula. About two dozen students were arrested. One of those arrests, of a special education student with autism, has prompted a lawsuit against the Temecula Valley Unified School District.
[...]
Bennett said the deputies selected to go undercover this year received additional training about special needs students, in addition to training about avoiding entrapment.
He said all of those arrested this year are “mainstream students” in general education classes.
The last two sentences in the above quote actually raise numerous questions.
These undercover drug sting operations are still happening in schools across the nation at an alarming rate, and they do not work. The Los Angeles Police Department, who pioneered these operations, actually stopped doing them because they were ineffective, and entrapped a very high ratio of special education students and minorities. And zero tolerance policies allow the civil rights of kids to be trampled, which is what happened to our son.
So we find it ironic that these sting operations entrap kids who don’t have drug problems, while ignoring the real issues involving students and drugs. They create problems and headlines, but never solutions.
We are certain that the administrators at the Perris Union High School District will soon see that, by agreeing to participate in this barbaric practice, they essentially made a deal with the devil. I cannot say strongly enough how offended we are by this wretched, abusive behavior, and we intend to shine a public spotlight on it.
Shame on those who allowed this to happen. This cannot ever happen again.
Stay tuned.
Here is How You Can Help
Let your feelings about this be known. Key links and contact info:
The comments section at the Press Enterprise:
http://www.pe.com/...
Riverside County Sheriff's Department:
Phone: 951-955-2400
Feedback Form: http://www.riversidesheriff.org/...
Perris Union High School District:
Superintendent Jonathan Greenberg
Email: jonathan.greenberg@puhsd.org
Phone: (951) 943-6369 x80102 or x80103
Board of Trustees:
William Hulstrom
President
Email: william.hulstrom@puhsd.org
Joan Cooley
Vice President
Email: joan.cooley@puhsd.org
Carolyn Twyman
Clerk
Email: carolyn.twyman@puhsd.org
David Nelissen
Member
Email: david.nelissen@puhsd.org
Edward Agundez
Member
Email: edward.agundez@puhsd.org
More Ways to Help
Sign the petition to permanently end undercover drug stings in schools.
Donate to the Snodgrass Legal Fund.