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K-9 SWEEPS: 'ARE OUR KIDS REALLY IN SUCH DANGER?'

I really think the school lockdown and K-9 sweeps at our Northshore School District junior highs in October was overkill.  Are we trying to indoctrinate our students to accept having their civil liberties tested, if not violated ( I know that there have been conflicting rulings in the courts regarding "suspicion-less sniffs" )? I must say as a professional who has worked at First Security Bank, IBM, Washington Mutual, JP Morgan Chase and Microsoft, we have NEVER had our areas swept by K-9 units ( and this would be allowed since these are private, not government institutions, as are the public schools ).

Are our kids really in such danger? What are we keeping them safe from? Maybe they would be safer if they weren't at a school that used such heavy handed tactics.  Will we have urine tests next? Full body scanners like they do at the airports? ( I'm sure those would find the drugs and other illegal paraphernalia.  ) What about students whose parents have cancer and take medical cannabis so they can eat - do you suppose the dogs will smell that on the kids' jackets in their lockers?

For more than four decades, Gallup has asked Americans if marijuana should be legalized.  Recently, Gallup published its latest findings, with 50 percent of Americans approving of legalization and 46 percent disapproving.

As a concerned parent of three Northshore School District students in elementary, junior high and high school, I am against these measures.  I am glad you take school safety and zero-use policy seriously, but I am all for honoring our Constitution and the Fourth Amendment - thus maybe we should spend more time teaching about the Fourth Amendment, not contradicting it.

Tolli Lowell-Forker

Bothell