Pubdate: Wed, 01 Aug 2007
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2007 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Contact:  http://www.starbulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/196
Author: Alexandre Da Silva
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)

ACLU PROTESTS BLANKET STUDENT LOCKER SEARCHES

It Says a Push to Allow Principals Access With No Cause Is Worrisome

The American Civil Liberties Union is protesting a state push to 
allow drug-sniffing dogs in public schools and let officials open 
students' lockers without establishing reasonable suspicion.

The state Department of Education argues that changes to the student 
discipline code known as Chapter 19 are needed to make campuses safer.

The revisions come as education officials are considering expanding a 
pilot program through which a drug-sniffing dog found marijuana and 
several liquor bottles at all three Maui public schools it visited this spring.

Members of a Board of Education committee debating the revisions to 
Chapter 19 agree the code needs to be updated with definitions like 
cyberbullying, forgery and hazing; and a prohibition of gadgets like 
laser pointers, iPods and DVD players, as well as gang paraphernalia, 
on school grounds.

The issue of locker searches has been more controversial.

"I think that if you are on a school campus, that it's not really 
your own personal property," said board Chairwoman Karen Knudsen. 
"But if the dog is specifically trained to be able to detect drugs, I 
don't see that that should be a problem if you don't have drugs."

But Laurie Temple, a Hawaii ACLU attorney, said giving principals 
access to students' lockers at any time without reason or cause is 
"unnecessary, potentially unconstitutional and opens the schools up 
to liability."

"There's just no rationale to allow for searches without a cause," 
she said. "Hawaii has a history, a tradition of upholding student 
privacy rights and individual privacy rights in general."

The Education Department has been working with the state Attorney 
General's Office for the past seven months to gather input from 
schools and reword Chapter 19, which has been untouched since 2001.

Officials with the Attorney General's Office have approved the new 
language, including the portion allowing for the locker searches, 
said Deputy Schools Superintendent Clayton Fujie.

It reads: "School lockers provided to the students on campus are 
subject to opening and inspection (and external dog sniffs) by school 
officials at any time with or without reason or cause."

If approved by the education board, the new code would still be 
subject to public hearings and Gov. Linda Lingle's signature.

Board member Garrett Toguchi said he understands privacy concerns, 
but that officials need to explore options to stop drugs from 
entering campuses.

"I agree that we have to, I guess, tread carefully, but the use of 
drugs in schools has continued to be a problem ... and doesn't seem 
to be getting any better," he said. "So we need to arm ourselves with 
different ways of reducing use of drugs on campus." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake