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?