Pubdate: Sat, 20 May 2006
Source: Marin Independent Journal (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Marin Independent Journal
Contact:  http://www.marinij.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/673
Author: Don Speich
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)

DISTRICT DUMPS DRUG DOGS

In an about-face, Sausalito Marin City School District  trustees 
killed a drug-sniffing dog program that  critics had assailed as 
ill-conceived, clumsily  implemented and an assault on students' 
rights.  District trustees ended the controversial proposal  Thursday 
night in the same fashion they approved it  last November: by a unanimous vote.

"You are never to have these dogs come back for any  reason," 
mathematics teacher David Wetzel admonished  the board. Wetzel 
teaches at Tamalpais High School and  at Martin Luther King Jr. 
Academy middle school in  Marin City, where the dogs were slated for 
monthly  visits.

His remarks were tinged with emotion, as were those of  other 
speakers, many of whom since early this year have  demanded the board 
reverse its decision that would have  had Interquest Detection 
Canines of Houston perform  monthly inspections at a cost of $2,500.

District spokesman Martin Brown said the money, under  terms of the 
contract, already has been paid to the  Houston firm.

Wetzel said the board would have been better served had  the district 
employed community members "who could use  the money" to inspect the 
campus for signs of drug use,  such as a syringe Trustee Tom Clark 
said he found on  the outskirts of the six-acre campus.

"If a child had fallen on the syringe," said Clark  prior to Wetzel's 
remarks, "(the child) could have died  of AIDS."

Because of this, Clark's motion to end the dog program  was coupled 
with another to encourage local law  enforcement agencies to more 
aggressively enforce state  laws and prosecute anyone caught using 
drugs within  1,000 feet of a school.

Trustee Whitney Hoyt summed up the sentiment of many,  saying she 
agreed with comments during the meeting that  "sniffing doesn't educate."

The program was suspended in March after only one visit  to the 
campus in January by the dogs to introduce the  animals to the 
students. No inspection was performed.

Trustees directed staffers to study the use of dogs  along with other 
possible ways to prevent drug use at a  campus where all trustees 
agreed there was no evidence of drug use.

Trustees maintained the dogs were simply a "tool" to  prove they were 
right and to mollify any concerns in  the community that there was 
anything afoot in the  school - such as drug use - that could prevent 
students  from succeeding.

Mary Buttler, who until recently was the interim  superintendent of 
the district, headed the study and  formed several focus groups 
representing parents,  community members, students and staff. Each, 
meeting  separately, came back with the same No. 1  recommendation: 
"no drug dogs."

Parents and community leaders protested the program  after officials 
announced in January that dogs would be  visiting the middle school 
just a couple of days before  the actual visit - they said that was 
the first they  had heard of the program. The controversy grew after 
the American Civil Liberties Union and the National  Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People  demanded the program be ended.

ACLU leaders said the program violated students'  constitutional 
protections against unreasonable search  and seizure, based largely 
on the trustees' contention  that there was no evidence of drug use at MLK.

Some trustees said Thursday the program was not without  its merits. 
It prompted parents and community members  to become involved with 
the district, something they  claim has not been the norm. "If 
anything came out of  this dog issue it was to stimulate more 
parental and community involvement," said Trustee Robert Fisher. 
"It  has helped to bring the community to us."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom