Cops target Special Ed Students in Schools

You know it is unacceptable when a police officer who has been trained in psychological war-fare tactics entraps a teenager who is in full control of their mental faculties...but I do not have a word to describe what it is excatly when a police officer entraps a Special Education kid.

How did we get to this point in America and what can be done to make it STOP?
This is a special issue to me because I have school age kids.

Critics Say Undercover Officers Catch Small-Time Offenders And Special-Ed Students. Proponents Say It's The Best Way to Fight Dealers.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to launch a review of the police program of sending undercover officers into high schools to buy drugs amid questions over whether the busts are fair and effective.

The School Buy program, which is conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department on campuses across the city, caught 252 students selling drugs over the last year. Police officials declared the campaign a success, noting that it caught 105 more students than last year's program.

Ok so if it is effective, as the police claim, then how come they are arresting more kids? I mean come on, if it were truly working then the cops would be reporting no arrests as no drugs would be on campus. Sounds like they are making the problem worse to me. And sadly that is nothing new.

But critics said success should not be measured by the number of students caught. They question whether the officers are actually targeting serious dealers. They also point to the rise in special-education students caught in recent years.

According to Los Angeles school district records, 28 special-education students were referred for expulsion through the program this year, the highest number in the five years for which records were available. Last year, there were 24, and in the 2001-02 school year there were 7.

Special-education students made up about 15% of the 191 students referred for expulsion this year, roughly the same percentage of special-education students in the district high schools.

"We're finding that more and more special-education kids are being caught," said Fonna Bishop, principal of Hollywood High School, where about a third of the students caught this year were in special education. "These are young people who have problems, learning disabilities, emotional trouble. They want to make friends, they want to be cool. They don't think about consequences."

This is DISGRACEFUL....UTTERLY DISGRACEFUL. How hard is it to trick a lonely kid with learning problems when it's a cop doing the tricking? They are trained to be sneaky bastards and can trick even the most cautious among us

Read more at DecrimWatch link via my friend Libby at LastOneSpeaks