Concerns Raised About Legality Of Searches

THREE rural Manitoba schools have hired a drug-detection dog to sniff out everything from marijuana to crystal methamphetamine -- despite a warning such searches could be illegal. 

It's the first time in Manitoba a drug dog owned by a private company, not police, has been hired by school officials to sniff students' lockers.  A fourth Manitoba school is expected to be searched by the dog before Christmas. 

The searches come as high schools across Canada try to deal with increased drug use by students. 

But the choice of a private dog-for-hire detection team raises concerns about the legal rights of students because no police are involved. 

"I am surprised this has taken place," Keith Thomas, risk manager for the Manitoba Association of School Trustees, said in an interview. 

"It does beg the question whether the schools are handling this right if they do this without police.  This is a criminal event." The searches have been done by Rogue Crew Investigations under a private contract with each school.  The firm is run by Jeff Bellingham, a retired city police drug investigator and his wife, Scarlett. 

Bellingham said his dog has also been used at several Manitoba businesses whose managers fear drug use on the job could affect productivity and worker safety.  In these searches, the dog has found marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and crystal methamphetamine. 

He also said several parents have hired the dog to search their homes to learn if their kids are using drugs. 

Bellingham would not name the schools that have contracted him, citing confidentiality. 

He said the searches were done at random and as unobtrusively as possible.  One search of lockers was done during school hours, although no students were present, he said.  "The school wanted to let the kids know what was happening," Bellingham said.  "The message was that if you want to bring your drugs to school, this is the risk you take."

He said drugs found by his dog were given to police for destruction.  School officials and the students' parents punished the students. 

MAST's Thomas has said in the past that schools should not use drug-detection dogs to root out narcotics. 

"The best advice we've given principals, if you have strong suspicions about someone, you have the right to call in the Mounties or the city police," Thomas said.  "I warn them, these are very treacherous waters. 

"You don't do it on a whim.  The parents need to be part and parcel of this, or you're going to be in trouble."

But Bellingham said schools have a duty to be proactive in clamping down on drugs. 

A major study last week suggested marijuana use in Canada has doubled over the last decade.  The Canadian Addiction Survey reports that 14 per cent of respondents, many of them young Canadians, say they used cannabis in the last year, up from 7.4 per cent in 1994. 

"This is something trustees couldn't grasp," he said.  "Schools have an obligation to provide a healthy, safe environment.  I am not acting as an agent of the state.  I am only doing what the school has asked me to do.  Principals, teachers and students are in favour of this."

He cited an Addictions Foundation of Manitoba 2001 survey that said more than half the students questioned viewed alcohol and drug use as a major problem at their school, with only academic failure seen as a comparable threat.  The issue of using drug-sniffing dogs for schools is not unique to Manitoba.  A school board in B.C.'s Fraser Valley was to approve a controversial draft drug policy this week to bring drug-sniffing dogs into schools, despite criticism by the B.C.  Civil Liberties Association. 

"We're trying to be as respectful and sensitive of people's privacy as possible," Abbotsford trustee and policy committee chairman Don Szostak said, "but on the other hand, if there are drugs in a locker, we want to deal with it."

B.C.  Civil Liberties Association executive director Murray Molland has raised concerns about the impact on students if dogs give a false positive alert when sniffing a locker. 

"The school board is embarking on a disastrous path that will certainly lead to false accusations and wrongly stigmatize students as drug users," Molland said in a statement. 

Schools in Alberta and Ontario have also used detector dogs to find drugs. 

In Manitoba, a plan last year to allow random drug testing of student athletes was shelved by Garden Valley School Division trustees because of widespread criticism. 

"They concluded that the rights of the individual, at this point, superseded the rights of the group," Garden Valley superintendent Dom Wilkins said at the time. 

Wilkins said yesterday the division hasn't revisited the testing plan or brought in a drug-sniffing dog. 

He said schools rely on internal counselling programs to help students with drug abuse.  If drugs are found, police are called.  Hanover School Division superintendent John Peters said the use of a dog could create a bad image for a school. 

"Kids are more sophisticated now," Peters added.  "They're too smart to bring drugs into a building.  They keep them in their cars."

Interlake School Division superintendent Darlene Dufily said she was unaware of any the division's schools being visited by a drug dog. 

Bellingham started his private investigation firm more than a year ago after he retired from Winnipeg police. 

His dog Billy, a Belgian Malinois, is trained to American Drug Enforcement Agency standards.