Nineteen students have been arrested in San Bernardino, Calif., on charges of selling drugs, following a three-month investigation during which city police agents posed as students at four city secondary schools.
The investigation also led to the arrest of 24 adults on charges of selling drugs in the surrounding community, according to Sergeant Daniel F. Hernandez, a superintendent of the police department’s narcotics and vice division.
The undercover work, which involved three high schools and one junior high, was part of an 18-month cooperative drug-education and enforcement effort by the city school district and the police department funded by a $133,000 grant from the California Department of Justice.
The undercover officers were able to purchase marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines on school property, Mr. Hernandez said. Police confiscated nearly $2,000 worth of drugs when the arrests were made, he said.
Philadelphia Board
Requires Course in
Adolescent Sexuality
In an effort to reduce the rate of teen-age pregnancy in Philadelphia, the city’s board of education has voted to require high-school students to take an adolescent-sexuality course beginning next fall.
The course, “Adolescent Sexuality and Parenthood,” will be provided for 10th graders. Students will be excused from taking it only with pa-rental approval.
The course will cover methods of contraception as well as moral and ethical values related to sexual activity, parenthood, marriage, and career plans.
The board approved the requirement unanimously after holding two public hearings last summer at which the “overwhelming sentiment” was that “the course was valuable and should be mandatory,” according to J. William Jones, director of public information for the School District of Philadelphia.
A week after the board’s vote last month, a commission appointed by Mayor W. Wilson Goode issued a report linking the rate of teen-age pregnancy to the city’s high infant-mortality rate and suggesting that schools provide students with contraceptives and prenatal care. District officials plan to review the report, Mr. Jones said.
Entire School Board
Turned Out by
Georgia Voters
Citizens of Walker County, Ga., irate over a large increase in their local school tax, have ousted all five members of the school board in a special recall election.
All five members were recalled by a substantial margin in voting last month, including one member who had served on the board for 22 years. A special election to fill the seats will be held next month.
Lamar Christian, a lawyer who led the recall effort, said it was sparked in July when the board raised the school tax by 30 percent but refused to discuss the reasons for the increase.
“We thought the tax increase was unreasonable and attempted to talk to the school board,” he said. “Their explanation was not adequate.’'
The recall election was scheduled after organizers collected signatures from 30 percent of the county’s 21,000 registered voters.
