San Diego : 21 Point Loma Students Held in Drug Case

Police arrested 21 students and a parent Thursday on suspicion of selling drugs to an undercover police officer who posed as a student for five months at Point Loma High School.

Narcotics officers arrested most of the students shortly after they arrived at school Thursday morning, police spokesman Rick Carlson said. All were charged with selling drugs to the unidentified officer.

Officers arrested a woman and her daughter at their home Wednesday night. Carlson alleged that Sheila Gearhart, 18, sold the agent narcotics at the house with the knowledge of her mother, Doris L. Babione, 37.

The other adults arrested were Robert Bussell, 18; Mark Metrovich, 18; Tony Azevedo, 18, and Andrew Banks, 18.

Carlson said the officer made a total of 41 purchases, most of which were $10 quantities of marijuana, cocaine, LSD or methamphetamines.

The suspects were either released to their parents or placed in custody in Juvenile Hall or the County Jail.

The Thursday raid was the fourth in a series of undercover operations aimed at eliminating drug use on high school campuses, Carlson said.

The first raid occurred in January, 1984, when 115 Hoover and Patrick Henry high school students were arrested and charged with selling narcotics.

“The raids have been a definite deterrent,” Carlson said. “The arrests have been fewer with each raid.”

Point Loma High School Principal James Gauntlett said the raid will serve to discourage drug use on his campus.

“We want to keep our campus as clean as possible of drugs,” he said. “This raid has made the students aware that we have not grown tolerant of this illegal behavior.”

Carlson added that the undercover operations and raids will continue until the city’s high schools are drug-free.