Teacher's Nightmare

If Wichita Falls (Texas) High School stands for another hundred years it will probably never experience anything quite as sensational as the arrival last month of a new boy named Alexander Garza. Garza hit school the way the twister hit grandpa's barn. His appearance alone was enough to turn heads: he was a slim, tough-looking youth who sported a mustache, long sideburns and a goatee, wore blue jeans, a maroon jacket and a snap brim hat, and simultaneously smoked a cigar and chewed bubble gum.

From the moment Alexander parked his Ford (a car he soon traded for a flashy Chrysler), the school became a teacher's nightmare. He packed a snub-nosed .38 pistol tucked in his waistband. He had a switch knife with which he picked his teeth. He flashed a roll of bills and spouted the fastest brand of jive talk his astounded classmates had ever heard.

Weedhead's First Day. On his first day he: 1) made loud, pointed remarks about the physique of the prettiest teacher and tried to date her; 2) put his feet on a desk in the school office, lit a fresh cigar and called the principal "Skinny"; 3) picked a fight with the toughest kid in school and whaled him into quivering wreckage. Garza spoke knowingly of his ability to "blow the weed" (smoke marijuana), within the week had been nicknamed "Weedhead" and was the swaggering leader of the worst element in the institution.

Last week, to the intense relief of all concerned, Alexander Garza was no longer a member of the student body. Alexander Garza, it turned out, wasn't Alexander Garza at all, but a 23-year-old narcotics agent who, neatly shaved and garbed in a sober grey business suit, was preparing to tell a grand jury all about a marijuana ring--wholesalers, retailers and pushers--which he had uncovered in two weeks of masquerade.

District Attorney Alan ("Chick") Haley, who had recruited him for the job, refused to give Garza's real name, but he disclosed a few details of the agent's background. The youth's father, a law-enforcement officer, was killed by dope smugglers when the boy was seven; after Garza grew up and served a four-year hitch in the Marines, he became a cop, too.

Pseudo Pachuco. His mastery of border Spanish and his ability to imitate a Mexican pachuco (zoot-suiter) led him into a career as an undercover agent. As such, he worked all over the U.S., and at one point fought his way out of a nest of six knife-wielding junkies.

His sensational entrance at Wichita Falls High School put him in contact with the local marijuana ring within three days. By dint of a lot of night driving, he managed to buy $18,500 worth of marijuana (with marked bills) from dealers all over north central Texas.

Last week the cops had grabbed ten of Garza's contacts in Wichita Falls, four in Fort Worth, four in Dallas, and one in Waco. Garza, resting up from his endeavors, looks forward to the day when he will be too old or too well-known to be a zoot-suited undercover agent in high schools. He wants to be a Texas Ranger.

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