Pubdate: Sat, 26 Jan 2008 Source: Bakersfield Californian, The (CA) Copyright: 2008 The Bakersfield Californian Contact: http://www.bakersfield.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/36 Author: Tara Mclaughlin, Californian staff writer Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS CONSIDERED FOR KHSD Despite Legal Questions, Trustee Favors 'Deterrence' On any given day, in any given classroom, students could be told to leave their belongings and step outside. Enter a friendly Labrador with a nose for alcohol, drugs and gunpowder. So it is in schools around Kern County, and so it could be for the Kern High School District if Trustee Ken Mettler gets his way. He will suggest at the Feb. 4 board meeting that the district hire a canine drug detecting company. The contract could be worth more than $55,000 annually. "I think we look at prevention like this or we may end up some day losing control and having it become endemic to the system," Mettler said. The district has 500 drug-related expulsions every year. At his behest, KHSD staff explored the "deterrence" program for the soon to be 18-campus district. And while findings laid out at the January board meeting didn't endorse the idea, Mettler is moving forward with the campaign he says will keep schools safer, reduce drug-related expulsions and potentially save the school money by keeping more kids in class. School funding relies on average daily attendance. Several of Kern's public districts and private schools employ dogs: Delano, Taft, Garces and Bakersfield Christian. Fresno Unified uses dogs, and Los Angeles has its own. Houston-based Interquest Detection Canines serves 400 California districts, said Vice President Mike Ferdinand. And Kontraband Interdiction and Detection Services, or KIDS, headquartered in Modesto, serves 100, said President Steven Essler. Legal matters But a legal question emerged in KHSD's review. In 2000, state Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Deputy Attorney General Anthony S. Da Vigo wrote an opinion declaring that while students have more limited personal rights than average citizens, the act of separating them from their personal effects to be "sniffed" would constitute an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Schools Legal Service has advised the district of this, said Alan Paradise, KHSD's director of pupil personnel, but the dogs could sniff lockers and cars in the student parking lot. Opinions don't have legal binding, said Al Harris, associate counsel for Schools Legal Service, but courts can use them as guidelines. And it appears that no one has challenged this in the courts, so companies continue to search bookbags and coats left behind by students who were told to do so. Just 2 percent to 5 percent of districts using KIDS and Interquest opt out of separating students from their belongings, both companies said. The legal quandary doesn't impact private schools. Since they're not governmental entities, they have greater leeway to impinge on individual rights for a good purpose than a public school might be able to, Harris said. Beyond the foggy legal area, K-9 companies sell their four-legged drug detectors to districts on the safety factor. Essler said his dogs have found guns and bombs in bags, and he would much rather answer to parents who question whether student rights were violated than to parents whose child has been injured. What is success? But local schools say they are sold on deterrence and are happy when nothing is found. And that makes success difficult to quantify. How does one track students who decide not to bring drugs or alcohol to school? Too many variables impact expulsion rates, said Dean McGee, West High School principal. Everything from boundary changes to different approaches by different administrators to a new class of students can make a difference, and all this changes year to year, month to month, week to week, he said. But Delano High School Principal Richard Smithey credits the dogs for his school's 50 percent drop in drug-related expulsions. In the 1999-2000 school year, the first with the dogs, Delano had 14 drug-related expulsions and similar numbers the year before. But since then, expulsions were cut in half, Smithey said. And to some, success is more than what can be tracked. Dogs at Garces haven't found much in this, their first, and President John Fanucchi is thrilled. He thinks the dogs are very effective as a deterrent, and he's "very pleased and happy" the dogs have not detected anything. And at Bakersfield Christian, dogs found Advil, expelled gunshot casings and a fermented sports drink, said President Dan Cole. "Does it solve all the problems? No, it's impossible," he said. This isn't the first time KHSD has explored the issue. Lee Vasquez, principal at South High, said that when he was KHSD's pupil services director from 2000 to 2005, drug-sniffing dogs were considered. "There is no real evidence that it's a deterrent," Vasquez said. And others, who feel the district is doing a good job already, say the dogs will do more to damage the educational atmosphere than deter bad behavior. "I want to support my teachers and the 99 percent of my kids doing the right thing every day," Bakersfield High School Principal David Reese said. "We're not dogs, we're teachers. We're qualified to ID kids under the influence." But some Bakersfield students who see perhaps more keenly than anyone what drugs are doing to schools said dogs may bring some reprieve. "I think it's a good idea, but it still intrudes on students' rights," said 17-year-old senior Elvin Rajan. Said junior Alison Limway, 16, "There are too many young people ruining their lives with drugs, and this might help a little." But senior Amber Ford, 17, said the dogs wouldn't stop kids from bringing drugs to school. - --- MAP posted-by: Steve Heath