LOCKER SEARCHES GET THE OK IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Armed with the support of parents and teachers, the Grande Prairie
Public School District has committed to sniffing out potential
problems in its junior and senior high schools.

A new policy allowing the use of the RCMP's service dog to help keep
schools drug-free was given final approval Tuesday after being given
the go-ahead by the primary stakeholders in the district.

"We met with the school council chairs and they are in support of
this," said Supt. Lorne Radbourne of the policy that was originally
approved in principle last month. "We faxed a copy of the policy to
(the RCMP) and it meets their requirements as well. We'll be putting
this into operation in the fall."

Under the guidelines of the new policy, students will be informed of
the procedure at the beginning of every school year and will sign
forms to indicate they understand the police dog can be called in at
any time to search lockers.

Principals can access the entire school facility - including lockers -
and will have the flexibility to conscript the RCMP dog's services as
they see fit. Any evidence gathered as a result of a search can be
used either by the school administration for disciplining or by the
RCMP for criminal charges.

"We'll be sending a notice to parents to make sure all the parents and
students are aware of what we're doing and understand the policy,"
Radbourne said.

"We won't have access to the dog whenever we want but we definitely
hope to call in the services from time to time."

While the dog searches could begin in the fall, so too will dialogue
between the school district and various community partners on
initiatives to help keep drugs out of the schools.

Neither the Peace Wapiti School Board nor the Grande Prairie Catholic
School District currently has policies allowing the use of search dogs
in schools.