Pubdate: Wed, 11 Jul 2001
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2001 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  http://www.bergen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Ashanti M. Alvarez

SCHOOL BOARDS DEBATE USE OF DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

A student at Bergenfield High School arrives late on a recent morning 
before school lets out for the summer. Administrators bark at her to 
get into the lunchroom.

At the same time, Rex, a German shepherd trained to sniff out even 
minute amounts of drugs, is scratching and banging at the vents of a 
locker, his tongue hanging out. Bergen County K-9 Officer Rich 
VanderClute tousles Rex's short mane and gives the dog a 
congratulatory slap on the torso.

"When the dog goes crazy, that's the sign of a hit," said Bergenfield 
police Lt. Jim Stoltenborg "It turned out there was nothing in 
there." But he noted there may have been drugs in the locker at one 
time or in an adjacent locker.

Yet another measure in the educational zero-tolerance philosophy, 
school districts across the region have employed drug-sniffing dogs 
to keep drugs off campus. Some of those districts are Passaic, Wayne 
Hills and Wayne Valley, Manchester Regional, Northern Highlands 
Regional, and Clifton.

But some administrators question the tactic, believing it treads on 
students' privacy rights.

In Paterson, some school trustees have balked at the idea and the 
images it conjures in a mostly minority city.

"The first thing that crops up is the Sixties," school board 
President Alonzo Moody said. "I used to watch TV and see dogs taking 
chunks out of humans, and people relishing it. Just viciousness. 
There was more compassion for animals than there was for a race of 
people."

"I would hope that students know enough about American history to 
realize that's a problem," said J. C. Salyer, an attorney with the 
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

The K-9 effort is usually a collaboration between school districts 
and their county sheriff's department, which provides the dogs and 
their trainers.

Administrators say the exercise deters students from bringing drugs 
to school. Some say they realize that there are students who use and 
sell drugs outside of school, but they are concerned about keeping 
the substances away from other students.

"I think it's my responsibility as superintendent to make sure our 
students go to a safe, clean environment," said Clifton 
Superintendent William Liess, noting that police officers have 
patrolled the high school for 30 years and the district is installing 
surveillance cameras there.

In most schools, the searches are random. Only the administration is 
notified. Teachers and students find out when they are ordered to 
close and lock classroom doors until notified -- a "lockdown" -- such 
as the one encountered by the Bergenfield High student who was late.

Technically, school districts are on safe legal ground in doing the 
searches. Lockers are school property, and students are supposed to 
be informed of that before they are issued a locker.

Some case law concerning schools across the country indicates that 
wide-ranging searches of backpacks, cars, and the body can't be made 
without reasonable suspicion.

In the 1980 case of New Jersey vs. T.L.O., a principal at Piscataway 
High School searched the pocketbook of a female student -- identified 
only by her initials -- looking for cigarettes. He found marijuana 
paraphernalia and turned her over to the police, who helped bring 
delinquency charges against the girl.

The state Supreme Court decided in 1985 that where police need 
probable cause to initiate a search, school officials only need a 
reasonable suspicion. If a principal suspects a student is carrying 
drugs or a weapon, he or she can search the student's backpack, car, 
and body.

Schoolwide locker searches are not based on reasonable suspicion. But 
since they are school property, the lockers can generally be searched 
at any time and for any reason, as long as it's in the interest of 
school rules and the student body.

"I'm not sure that's quite right," said Salyer of the ACLU. 
"Ownership has never been the defining factor over whether you have a 
privacy interest. . . . It's like telling everyone you're going to 
make them prove their innocence," Salyer said.

Two members of Paterson's school board are vocal about allowing the 
dogs to roam high school halls in that city. They say drug problems 
are pervasive, inside and outside school.

"A lot of kids welcome [the dogs]. I think the only ones who don't 
welcome it are the ones that are guilty," said board member Juan 
"Mitch" Santiago.

Santiago and fellow board member Dan Vergara Sr. raised the issue 
several months ago. But the idea fell on deaf ears. Moody, the board 
president, and several residents expressed concern over the 
connotations of German shepherds in a mostly black and Hispanic 
school.

Besides, Santiago's accounts of drugs in schools -- the board member 
claimed a search would uncover a lot of marijuana, and even heroin 
and crack -- are unfounded, Moody said.

"There's no indication to say that's going on," said the 55-year-old 
Moody, who is also director of the city's Youth Services Bureau.

Allowing the dogs to sniff at lockers opens some kids up to 
unwarranted suspicion, Moody argues.

Stoltenborg, of the Bergenfield police, said that the dogs' noses are 
so discriminating, they can smell drugs that are long gone.

"If I take this," he said, holding up a small bag of marijuana, "and 
stick it in between this book, put it in the locker for five minutes 
and take it out, that dog is going to catch it."

So the locker at Bergenfield High with no drugs inside -- despite 
Rex's fervent reaction -- may have contained drugs at one point. 
Maybe there were drugs in an adjacent locker, Stoltenborg said.

"It's going to make that kid think, 'That dog was on my locker for 
something,' " the police lieutenant said.

These fine points cause Paterson's Moody to hesitate.

"Say a drug dealer buys a drink. Pays for it at the store. You buy a 
drink. You get the change. You get the dollar bill . . . the residue 
is on there. The residue is on you," he points out. "When the dog 
stops you, how do you explain that?

"You're going to be questioned. There's a presumption that you're 
involved in something. I'm a little bit leery of going that way 
because you have to give up some of your time to satisfy an inquiry."

Stoltenborg and Bergenfield High Principal Michael Kuchar insist the 
procedure won't be onerous.

"If there are no drugs inside, that's fine. The student is free to 
go. This is just a preventive measure," Kuchar said.

If a dog makes a "hit," typically the locker is subject to a search 
by school officials. In the first run at Bergenfield, it stopped 
there. Subsequently, law enforcement would contact the student's 
parents and either make a consent search or obtain a warrant.

"It takes a lot of man-hours," Stoltenborg said. "We're not looking 
to catch a kid with a joint. You're not going to stop kids from doing 
drugs."

The ACLU's Salyer, however, questions the cooperative relationship 
between police and schools -- which officials from both areas 
typically say is a step in the right direction.

"If it's decided the law enforcement officers are going to get a 
warrant and search that bag, it's not to find the kids who have drug 
problems and give them some help," Salyer said. "It's sort of running 
roughshod over the students."

But for some, the threat of drugs outweighs the dogs' historical 
image or ambiguities surrounding the issue of privacy.

"Maybe they misused the dogs in the past, but I wasn't there. I 
didn't use the dogs," Santiago, the Paterson school trustee, said. 
"Not only am I a minority, that's just not my mentality. If every 
district is doing it, how come we can't?"
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MAP posted-by: Kirk