Pubdate: Sun, 25 Feb 2001
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Copyright: 2001 The Daily Camera
Contact:  Open Forum, Daily Camera, P.O. Box 591, Boulder, CO 80306
Fax: 303-449-9358
Feedback: http://www.bouldernews.com/opinion/index.html
Website: http://www.bouldernews.com/
Author: Christopher Anderson

PETITION FOR DRUG SEARCHES BEGINS

Support for drug-detecting dogs in Boulder Valley high schools continues to 
grow.

A Monarch High School parent said she collected 150 signatures in support 
of the idea during Saturday night's boys' varsity home basketball game -- 
the first night of the drive.

Leslie Halladay also said a Broomfield parent picked up a copy of the 
petition and plans to circulate it around her city's high school. Parents 
from Boulder also said they were interested in supporting the movement, 
Halladay said.

"This is just the beginning," she said.

Halladay said she hopes to have 20 parents from around the Boulder Valley 
School District at a school board meeting on March 13. She plans to present 
the board with the petitions at that time.

Halladay is among a handful of parents who are concerned about drugs in 
schools, particularly after the Feb. 2 ecstasy related death of 16-year-old 
Brittney Chambers. Brittney's friends obtained the pills during a drug sale 
inside a Monarch High School restroom.

During a meeting with Louisville police Wednesday night, parents were 
surprised to learn that the school district was reluctant to allow officers 
to use K-9 units to sniff out drugs.

Halladay quickly found herself thrust into a fiery public debate, something 
she said she is not entirely comfortable with but is nevertheless willing 
to stand up for her belief.

"I don't think it will make the problem go away ... but it could save a 
life," she said. "I am just a concerned parent wanting to help. We just 
can't sit back in apathy and wait for someone else to do something."

Opponents to the proposal say the use of drug-detecting dogs would be 
disruptive and a violation of students' rights of privacy.

Boulder County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Williams, who heads the county's K-9 
unit, said dogs are less invasive than searching lockers by hand because 
only those lockers in the area the dog alerts on would be checked. It would 
be up to school officials, not the officers, to open the lockers, he said.

Halladay is encouraging other parents who want to support the drive to 
leave their name with their school's counseling office where she will 
collect the names.
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