Pubdate: Wed, 14 Dec 2011
Source: Bothell Reporter (WA)
Contact:  2011 Sound Publishing, Inc.
Website: http://www.bothell-reporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5301
Author: Tolli Lowell-Forker

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
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MAP posted-by: Richard R Smith Jr.