Pubdate: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 Source: Ventura County Star (CA) Copyright: 2004 The E.W. Scripps Co. Contact: http://www.staronline.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/479 Author: Erinn Hutkin Cited: Kontraband Interdiction and Detection Services (KIDS) http://www.kidservicesinc.com/ Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) SCHOOLS HOPE DOGS SNIFF BUT FIND NOTHING Two Hueneme Campuses Will Get Regular Contraband Checks The most marijuana Steven Essler's drug-sniffing dogs ever found at a school was a three-pound stash inside a backpack. But his Labrador retrievers have also sniffed out LSD, cocaine and opium -- all within walls of a school. Essler's dogs detected guns in classrooms. They once found a station wagon outside a school loaded with 17 bottles of whiskey and a keg of beer -- stopping a party teenagers planned for a Friday night. But when Essler, president and CEO of Modesto-based Kontraband Interdiction and Detection Services (KIDS), brings dogs for random visits at E.O. Green and Charles Blackstock schools in the Hueneme Elementary District, he hopes to find nothing at all. The school board signed a one-year contract with KIDS last spring. Once school resumes Aug. 31, two dogs and their handlers will visit the grades 6-8 schools unannounced, sniffing for illegal drugs, weapons and alcohol. The contract covers 20 bi-monthly visits for about $3,500. The sniff-searches, school board member Ralph Ramos said, are an attempt to make campuses safer and free of dangerous, deadly objects. "The service KIDS is providing sends a message that if you bring that stuff on campus, it will be detected," he said. "Hopefully, the dogs don't find anything. But if they do, there will be consequences." Last school year, the district that educates over 8,000 K-8 students, expelled 15 of them. Twelve expulsions were for marijuana. One was for possession of a weapon, while the remaining two students were kicked out for fights. The district learned about the company at a California School Boards Association conference. Before approving a contract, Essler and a canine companion visited a board meeting to demonstrate the program. The board watched a dog locate a bullet, an airline-sized bottle of whiskey and a speck of marijuana that were hidden throughout the meeting room. The company was conceived in 1997, and Essler, its president, said about half its 200 clients are schools. A campus visit spans a few hours. But students who are asked to leave a room so dogs can sniff are displaced only about 5 minutes. On campus, Essler said, canines sniff lockers, restrooms and classrooms. A dog alerts a trainer it has found something by barking or wagging its tail. Even then, KIDS employees are not law enforcement. They have no authority to arrest, he said, and searching items such as backpacks can be done only with permission. If a dog detects a scent, a student is asked privately, in the presence of a school administrator, for permission to look inside. If a student refuses, the issue is handed to administrators, who can call parents for permission to search. However, Essler pointed out, a picked-up scent does not lead to automatic guilt. A backpack, for instance, may smell like marijuana if it was in a room where the drug was smoked. If a search turns up nothing, a student is simply sent back to class. "The concept of our program is not to catch. It's to deter," he said. "In a K-8 school, the biggest thing we can provide is a deterrent. .. This is a place of education. They have a right to attend a safe campus." If a student is found with weapons or drugs, said district Superintendent Gerald Dannenberg, it triggers an expulsion process. The district plans to educate students and parents about the service by holding an assembly. Kids will be introduced to a dog, then warned it can show up at any time. Systems like William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa Clarita have used KIDS for five years. Mike vonBuelow, assistant superintendent of the grades 7-12 school system, said staff surveys indicate the program is working. He said students whose backpacks are targeted usually confess before consenting to a search. He said the number of students has grown in recent years, but drug, alcohol and weapons incidents have not. "It has not been surrounded by controversy," he said. "The principals and staff feel it is an effective deterrent." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake