Feeling the Burn of a Sting

"Why was the officer placed in basic-level math? In weight-lifting?" Allen said. "Why weren't they in calculus? It doesn't sound random to me. . . . They needed a name."

As Leon Curry said, "Why would you send a wolf dressed in sheep's clothing, when you should've been sending a shepherd?"

Sheriff Johnson vigorously defends the way the operation was carried out. He points out that more white students were arrested than minorities. He said the idea that there was a racial or social bias is absurd.

"We backed up everyone with veteran officers," Johnson said. "There were strict rules. We handled it properly and professionally. . . .

"Ninety-nine percent of the community is saying, 'Sheriff, I appreciate what you've done in our schools. It's been needed for years.' "

'Second Chance'

Curry, now, is done talking about it all. He is finishing his high school education at an alternative school in Burlington. He cannot go to his senior prom, can't even set foot on the Eastern Alamance campus.

"He knows now that the measure is how you're able to swim against the tide," said Frankie T. Jones Jr., a businessman who lives not far from Curry and, since the charges, has helped advise the boy and the family. "There's so much adversity. Even in our great country, with the past discriminatory practices that have gone on, he understands that life offers some unfair things at times. . . .

"He is rejuvenated. Much of his hope and faith that was being questioned, or was diminishing to some degree, has been restored."

His hope is back, in large part, because Oklahoma State Coach Eddie Sutton, who has a history of extending second chances, gave one to Curry. "I have looked in his eyes and seen a remorseful young man who is looking for a second chance," Sutton said in a statement the day Curry signed. "He understands fully there is no margin for error."

Alamance County, though, still feels the impact of it all. Merrill, the superintendent, has refused to comment publicly on the sting since the day it happened. Sheriff Johnson pledges he will continue to fight drugs in schools. And the people in the towns, in the diners, in the convenience stores and barrooms still discuss it.

"I have daughters," said Walter Britt, the director of the YMCA in Burlington, where Curry still occasionally works out. "But if I had a 12-year-old son, and we followed him around, and my son idolized him, I can see where it would be devastating to the child. He had become a role model in this area.

"But I've heard nothing but support [for the raid]. I think we can use it as a teachable moment: It's not just these NBA players making mistakes. It's high school kids making mistakes."

The mistake, now, is done, over with. Last month, encountering an unexpected visitor at his house, Curry sounded eager to move on.

"Yes, sir," he said. "I just want to play. Yes, sir."

Quietly, he ambled inside the small house. Next month, he will go to Stillwater, Okla., to begin summer school, to start over. He will take his jump shot with him. He will try to leave his past, or at least this chapter of it, behind.