Pubdate: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 Source: Ozaukee County News Graphic (WI) Copyright: 2006 Conley Group Contact: http://www.conleypublishing.com/forms/gmtoday/contact2.htm Website: http://www.gmtoday.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4217 Author: Lisa Curtis, Gm Today Staff CHS CANINE DRUG SEARCH COMES UP EMPTY CEDARBURG - A first-ever drug sweep of the high school and the adjacent parking lot Tuesday morning turned up no illegal drugs on the grounds. Considering that one student was arrested for possessing cocaine and prescription amphetamines to sell at the school last month and other teens have been caught stealing and abusing Coricidin cold medicine, the absence of drugs at CHS was good news to school officials. "We're ecstatic," said Superintendent Daryl Herrick. "We are extremely pleased with the result." Parents received letters earlier in the school year informing them that the search would occur sometime this year, but no one was told when. The canine searchers are trained to alert for the odor of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, according to Police Chief Tom Frank. Twelve law enforcement agencies were involved in the search, including the Ozaukee and Waukesha County Sheriff's Departments and officers from the Mequon, Grafton, Port Washington, Fredonia, Germantown, Sheboygan Falls, Glendale, Franklin and Jackson police departments. The entire search took about 65 minutes, during which time seven canine dogs and their handlers searched the halls, outside the student lockers and all of the parking lots on school property During the search, students were on lockdown and unable to leave the classroom, said CHS Principal Robert Kobylski. The search dogs did alert for the odor of drugs in five lockers and three vehicles, Frank said. Since the dogs alert the way same for each of the drugs, there was no way of knowing which drugs they had detected, he said. Kobylski said there was an "immediate" investigation into the possible presence of drugs, which included interviews with the students. But there was little school officials could do in terms of discipline, Herrick said. The participation of officers from so many area police departments was needed to ensure that officers got in and out as quickly as possible, Frank said."The numbers are needed to conduct the search quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption to the education of the students," Frank said. In addition, the canine searchers are only effective for a limited period of time. Officers from the outside agencies operate on a mutual aid basis, providing personnel to each others' agencies at no cost. The search cost the city police department about $634 for four officers who worked a combined 13 hours of overtime in the search, Frank said. A total of eight Cedarburg police officers worked the drug search. Because the department needed to keep three other officers on patrol in the city, additional officers were called in on overtime, Frank said. This story appeared in the Ozaukee County News Graphic on November 16, 2006. - --- MAP posted-by: Elaine