Pubdate: Fri, 17 Mar 2006
Source: Mountaineer, The (Waynesville, NC)
Copyright: 2006 The Mountaineer Publishing Company
Contact: http://www.themountaineer.com/writeed.html
Website: http://www.themountaineer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4077
Author: Peggy Manning
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

SCHOOLS BOOT FOUR FOR DRUGS

Haywood County school officials, law enforcement officers and K9 units
from Haywood and surrounding counties conducted a scheduled lockdown
at the three public high schools March 3.

The brief search for drugs resulted in long-term suspensions of four
students and one arrest. Three students at Pisgah High were suspended
and a substance was detected at Tuscola High that later resulted in
one student being suspended. A Pisgah student also was charged for
possession of marijuana. Eleven K9 unit dogs searched the three
campuses simultaneously and discovered marijuana or drug paraphernalia
at two of the schools, said Associate Superintendent Bill Nolte.

"This is something we do periodically," Nolte said. The search on all
three campuses is done once a year, while lockdowns take place at
individual high schools and middle schools at unannounced times, he
said. "We do this with the school system as a preventive measure, to
keep campuses safe and drug-free," said Canton police officer Scott
Sluder, who has served as school resource officer at Pisgah for two
years. "Students are usually very cooperative, because 99 percent of
the students want a drug-free campus," Sluder said.

Doug Carver, an officer with the Haywood County Sheriff's Office,
helped coordinate the search effort. Carver works with K9 Rex, a
7-year old German Shepherd that has been with the force since 2000.
"He alerts us to drugs with a nonaggressive alert," Carver said. " He
will bark or paw at the object containing drugs when he smells them."
The lockdown, which takes less than two hours, involves closing
classroom doors and locking them, and closing window blinds, Nolte
said. Then, classroom by classroom, students are taken into the
hallways and remain there while an officer and dog enter the room to
search for drugs. All classrooms are searched, he said. "We do that
for several reasons. It secures the campus and protects the students,"
Nolte said. An officer and dog search backpacks in each classroom, he
said, as well as searching lockers and vehicles.

"If a dog 'hits' on something, or detects marijuana, we then have
reasonable suspicion to search further and talk to the student
involved," he said. K9 dogs are trained to detect different drugs and
to give different responses according to their training, Nolte said.
For example, some dogs will react by scratching, while others sit or
bark.

"They'll usually put the 'scratchers' in classrooms, rather than in
the parking areas, because we don't want them scratching up cars," he
said. If the dog's reaction is not the typical response, its handler
will often call in another dog and handler for a second opinion, Nolte
said. There were several "hits" at Pisgah and Tuscola high schools, he
said. However, many did not produce anything.

"Sometimes a dog will hit on something that smells like marijuana, for
example. It could be the smell is in an article of clothing or there
is some trace residue on something," Nolte said.

"And, a lot of times, we don't find anything," he said. The lockdowns
serve two purposes, Nolte said. "We detect and remove drugs from our
campuses and discipline students who are using drugs. But, we also
believe the lockdowns can be a deterrent to students who aren't using
drugs," he said. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake