Pubdate: Fri, 07 May 2010
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2010 The Abbotsford Times
Contact:  http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Rafe Arnott
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?237 (Drug Dogs)

DRUGS IN SCHOOLS GOING TO THE DOGS

Some say program highlights failures of parents and educators

Using drug-sniffer dogs to randomly search student lockers at 
Abbotsford schools is a violation of Charter privacy rights and is 
illegal, according to David Eby, the executive director of the B.C. 
Civil Liberties Association.

"They don't need a warrant . . . but they still need reasonable 
grounds to believe the students have broken school rules, because the 
school is still government and the students are still citizens," he said.

Eby suggested the policy also shows an appalling lack of respect to 
children, and highlights the failure of the Abbotsford School 
District and parents to properly educate children about the dangers 
of drug use.

If the only responsibility of the Abbotsford school board with 
respect to students was eliminating potential liability issues around 
the school, that would be one thing, but their job is actually education."

An adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia, 
Eby said all the drug-sniffing dogs in the world won't prevent kids 
doing drugs.

"In terms of combating drugs in schools, the most effective technique 
is going to be education, because as soon as they leave the school 
grounds . . . they are going to be exposed to drugs and the 
opportunity to use and purchase drugs."

When asked if any drugs have been found in Abbotsford schools using 
the dogs, Abbotsford Board of Education chair Cindy Schafer was 
unsure and said measuring the effectiveness of a policy of this type 
is problematic at best.

"Our goal is we want to keep schools safe, to measure whether or not 
that's been effective yet, I don't know how we could measure that," she said.

With budget concerns, cutbacks and possible school closures looming 
over many school districts, Schafer said the price for implementing 
the policy is negligible.

"This year the cost was $6,500," she said, "In a district of our 
size, the cost is minimal."

Vancouver School Board communications manager David Weir said the VSB 
has never employed sniffer dogs, and has no plans on implementing 
them, rather, schools employ VPD officers as liaisons who are a 
regular hallway presence.

"We do not use [dogs] in our schools, and we are not aware of any 
conversations or requests for us to consider using them," he said.

Margrett Donley is the owner of Canadian K9 Detection Security & 
Investigations Ltd., a Vancouver company contracted by the Abbotsford 
Board of Education to perform the drug sweeps.

Donley said searches of this type are proactive, and the dogs are 
more than 90 per cent accurate.

"This is not searching for criminals, that's not what this is about.

"This is about protecting our children," Donley said.

Parents and students like the idea of being protected, said Donley, 
regardless if the criminals do, in fact, turn out to be children and youth.

"There is not a child I have met in my life - that goes out to be a 
drug dealer or a drug mule - that decides one day that that is what 
they are going to do.

"They're influenced to do it," she said.

Eby thinks the tactics go too far.

"I don't know what stage we've gotten to, where we are using 
drug-sniffing dogs on our own children.

"It's a failure of drug policy and a failure of drug education among 
youth," he said.

In matters of safety, school authorities must be afforded a broad 
measure of discretion, Sgt. Mike Novakowski with the Abbotsford police said.

"Schools are a microcosm of a community. What happens in homes and on 
streets will, at some level, find its way into our schools.

"The use of drug sniffer dogs is one tool to assist school 
authorities in ferreting out [drugs]," Novakowski said.

Schafer said the school board has received no feedback on the policy 
from parents or students.

"We actually haven't heard anything."

The board did due diligence in implementing the policy, Schafer said.

"You can't deny, that in our community there are some things that 
have been problematic. Drugs is one of them, and gangs.

"We just want the message to get out there that we do not want the 
sharing and trafficking of drugs at school."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom