DOGS MAY SNIFF OUT CAMPUS DRUGS

School board to weigh bringing drug-detection canines to Analy, El
Molino high schools

High school students in west Sonoma County may have their lockers or
cars sniffed by drug-detection dogs under a proposal prompted partly
by an increase in drug arrests on one campus.

Administrators for Analy High in Sebastopol and El Molino High in
Forestville are asking school board members to consider bringing in
specially trained law enforcement dogs to sniff lockers along school
hallways and possibly vehicles in parking lots. Students and their
backpacks and purses would not be searched.

School officials said the aim is not to punish students, but to deter
them from bringing illegal drugs to school in the first place.

"If we do it, our hope is nobody gets caught," said Frank Anderson, a
co-principal at El Molino High.

Added Analy Principal Martin Webb: "If this is a way to send a strong
message, I think we should do it."

It is unclear how many schools conduct such searches statewide, but
it is uncommon in Sonoma County. Geyserville High School this fall
and previously conducted searches with drug dogs; scores of schools
in Southern California also make use of such searches.

Analy High administrators and Sebastopol police have contemplated
using drug dogs on campus for more than a year, said Police Chief
Jeff Weaver. But he said the discussions became more serious this
fall after "what I almost would call an alarming increase in drug use
by this ninth-grade class."

During the previous school year, police were called to campus to
arrest only two students at Analy. But in the first two months of the
current school year, officers have arrested eight students on campus
for having illegal substances, and most of the students arrested were freshmen.

The school board may discuss the use of drug dogs as early as Dec. 14
at a regularly scheduled board meeting.

"I think I would have a lot of questions that I don't think can be
answered in one board meeting," said Jan Belding, president of the
West Sonoma County Union High School District.

Even so, Belding said she supports at least discussing the use of
drug dogs because the principals think the idea may have merit.

The 2,600 students at the district's two regular high schools and its
Laguna Continuation High School will also have something to say about it.

"I don't like the idea one bit," said Jolie Devoto, Analy's student
body vice president. "I think it's horrible. It violates student rights."

Brendan Lee, the school's student body president, said student
leaders understand that officials want to keep drugs off campus, "but
this might not be the best solution." He acknowledged that he did not
have an alternative suggestion.

A spokesman for the county's school legal office said his office will
be reviewing the law.

In 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that subjecting luggage to a
"sniff test" by a trained narcotics dog does not constitute a search
within the meaning of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

In Southern California, some schools contract with private companies
to monitor campuses. But that's not the case at 96-student
Geyserville High School, where administrators brought in a Sheriff's
Office drug dog and handler this fall. Students were ordered to exit
classrooms, and then the dog walked through the rooms, sniffing
backpacks, jackets and other belongings, said Principal Katherine
Hadden. No illegal drugs were found.

Hadden emphasized she has her school board's support to bring in drug
dogs. She said she doesn't alert even her teachers as to when the
dogs will arrive.

"I want the element of surprise," she said.

In 2001, a sheriff's drug dog found a small sandwich bag of marijuana
during a similar search at the Geyserville campus. The discovery
resulted in the resignation of a teacher following a sheriff's report
that the instructor had told deputies the pot was his.

Figures are unavailable as to how many schools in the United States
bring in drug dogs from either law enforcement agencies or private
businesses. A Houston-based private company, Interquest Detection
Canines, reports that it provides drug-dog searches for 6 million of
the nation's roughly 53 million public and private school students.

That includes students at 110 schools in San Diego County and four
others nearby. The schools typically have monthly dog searches;
students exit designated classrooms and are asked to leave behind
their backpacks, jackets and other personal belongings, said
Christine Hazelton, president of Interquest's San Diego franchise. It
typically costs $400 per day, in which time the dogs can complete
visits to two high schools, she said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, however,
considers it unconstitutional for students to be forced to leave
behind their backpacks and other belongings for drug dogs to sniff.

"It's a seizure without reasonable suspicion," said staff attorney
Julia Harumi Mass.

School officials rejected the idea that the west county schools have
a more serious substance-abuse problem than other schools.

"Any high school in this nation has drugs or alcohol going on," Webb
said. "And it doesn't start in high school."