The undercover drug investigation in the Seneca Valley School District will hopefully serve as a deterrent to drug activity in other area school systems.

The Seneca Valley investigation succeeded in two ways. It resulted in the arrests of an Allegheny County adult who police believe is a drug supplier of some magnitude, as well as one Seneca Valley student, and provided school officials and police with a barometer of drug activity within the district.

It would not be wrong for similar anti-drug operations to take place in other school systems when officials deem that the time is right. The Seneca Valley investigation, conducted between January and May through a partnership between the district, Jackson Township police and the Butler County District Attorney's Drug Task Force, can be judged a success.

According to Len Keller, Jackson Township police chief, additional arrests are possible because the investigation identified several other participants in Seneca Valley drug activity.

Besides the arrests and the success at determining some of the other people involved in Seneca Valley's drug scene, the operation was successful in helping officials gauge the extent of the school district's drug problem. And, the finding offers hope to those who feared extensive drug activity.

"There are drugs, but not the acute, severe problem some allegations have indicated," Keller said. "There is not overt drug dealing going on, but we did find marijuana, cocaine, heroin and some LSD. The amount we found reflects exactly what we find in the community."

Still, any drug activity within the school system is not acceptable, and the undercover operation served notice to Seneca Valley and other districts' students that, from here on, the person with whom they are talking or dealing drugs might not be a student at all.

It is to be hoped that the penalties meted out in connection with this drug operation will also serve as a deterrent to intra-school drug activity in this county.

So far, Seneca Valley is the only Western Pennsylvania School District in which such an undercover investigation has been conducted, and Seneca Valley administrators deserve praise for their willingness to allow their district to be the first.

Keller said because Seneca Valley pursues a proactive stance against drugs, as evidenced by the the district's drug-testing program, he has wanted to plant an officer in the senior high school for some time.

The officer who carried out the Seneca Valley operaiton behaved, dressed and talked like any other high school student, taking tests, attending classes and mixing in with daily goings-on. However, the "curriculum" in which the officer was really enrolled required "studies" that other students did not envision.

Reacting to news about the investigation, some students regarded it as an invasion of privacy, but one of the responsibilities of school officials is to work to the best of their ability to keep drug activity out of their schools - with or without police intervention.

It was encouraging to hear Donald Tylinski, district superintendent, reiterate the district's commitment toward waging a tough fight against drugs.

"We will use every tool we have to make our school district safe," he said. "If this operation deters even one student from using drugs, it was successful."

Whether that happens might never be known, but some illegal-drug-involved students will definitely be thinking twice about what they do in their respective school environments. The heretofore "safe haven" of their school might end up as their worst nightmare.