Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 Source: Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (SD) Copyright: 2000 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan Contact: http://www.yankton.net Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1046 Author: Associated Press STUDENTS: DRUG DOG SEARCH WAS FRIGHTENING 17 File Lawsuit Accusing Wagner School Of Confinement SIOUX FALLS (AP) -- Seventeen elementary and high school students at Wagner have filed a lawsuit, accusing the school of confining them to their classrooms while a German shepherd sniffed them for drugs. The suit, filed Thursday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls, wants such activity declared a violation of the constitutional right against unreasonable searches. It also seeks unspecified damages and an order stopping the practice. The court document says that one day in early May, Wagner Principal Neil Goter announced over the school intercom that the school would be in "lockdown" until further notice and that no student could leave their classrooms, even to use the restroom. "Over the course of the next few hours, a number of local and federal law enforcement officers toured a police dog, a large German shepherd, through the classrooms of the Wagner school," the complaint said. Officers took the dog to each classroom as it sniffed students at their desks, according to the lawsuit. "In one classroom, a kindergarten classroom, no less, the dog got off (its) leash and chased students across the room," the court papers said. Some students started crying and at least one urinated involuntarily, the document says. In a release, Jennifer Ring, executive director of the Dakotas chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union said, "The very notion of there being a drug problem in kindergarten is ridiculous." A similar drug-dog search was conducted a few days later, the suit alleges. The episode lasted from two to three hours and caused many students to miss a subsequent class on at least one of the days, the complaint said. Some students experienced stress, physical discomfort and embarrassment when they were not allowed to go to the bathroom for several hours, according to the lawsuit. Students were told not to pet the dog, not to look at it or make any sudden movements while the animal was in their classroom -- and some students feared the dog would bite them, the complaint says. "Plaintiffs, students for whom the school has no indication of drug-related activity, should be able to attend class in a normal fashion and be educated in their classrooms without fear that they will be locked in the room with a large, unfriendly dog," the lawsuit says. The ACLU said in its class-action lawsuit that the Wagner School Board approved the search. The school board is named as a defendant, along with former Wagner Police Chief Richard Volk and Neil McCaleb, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department. Repeated attempts to reach the Wagner principal, school board president and school board attorney on Thursday afternoon and evening were unsuccessful. In March, the ACLU sued the school board, alleging that the school system's method of selecting board members discriminates against American Indians. The 17 students filing the latest lawsuit are Indian, the ACLU said. "Officials at this school, along with law enforcement officers, seem to be pioneering a practice of treating even the youngest students like hardened criminals," said Graham Boyd, the ACLU's lead counsel in the case. - --- MAP posted-by: Ariel