Meanwhile, in Gig Harbor

More than a year ago, a student in the Peninsula School District was expelled after being implicated in a plot to shoot students at his school. The student was later cleared of all charges, but the expulsion was not reversed. The school district has now agreed that the student can return to school (in the alternative program) as long as he regularly meets with a counselor who deems him fit to return. The family does not like this condition. (Read more here.)

I can understand the family's objection. If the boy has been acquitted by a jury, then perhaps his claims of innocence are true---why should he have to submit to further restrictions by the school district?

But perhaps the district's concerns run a bit deeper. Here is a student who, at the very least, made some poor choices in friends in the past and as a result has gained a bit of notoriety among peers and the community. He hasn't been part of the social fabric of a school in some time. Wouldn't access to a therapist help this young man transition back into the world of school? Perhaps help him reflect more on the choices he makes in the future?

secret shopped: Federal Way investigation nets guns, drugs

Eight students and two adults were arrested today for selling drugs, and offering to sell guns, at schools in the Federal Way School District.

The arrests were part of a seven-month investigation conducted by police, the Federal Way School District, King County prosecutors and Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

None of the guns were sold on campus, but some drugs were, said Federal Way police spokeswoman Stacy Flores. The youths sold drugs that included cocaine, marijuana, Oxycodone and ecstasy.

Two Federal Way officers worked undercover inside Federal Way, Todd Beamer and Decatur high schools the past seven months, Flores said. The officers set up deals with students while on campus.

This raises all sorts of questions--not only about the availability of drugs, or the proper role of police in school, but about how they kept things quiet for seven months. Administrators knew about the investigation, but did teachers? Did they become suspicious of the surprisingly cogent essays, the two-o'clock shadows, the mature insights offered in class discussions? Or were the undercover officers a little more subtle, sitting near the back, iPod blaring, scribbling pot leaves on the desk?