SCHOOL BOARDS DEBATE USE OF DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

A student at Bergenfield High School arrives late on a recent morning
before school lets out for the summer. Administrators bark at her to
get into the lunchroom.

At the same time, Rex, a German shepherd trained to sniff out even
minute amounts of drugs, is scratching and banging at the vents of a
locker, his tongue hanging out. Bergen County K-9 Officer Rich
VanderClute tousles Rex's short mane and gives the dog a
congratulatory slap on the torso.

"When the dog goes crazy, that's the sign of a hit," said Bergenfield
police Lt. Jim Stoltenborg "It turned out there was nothing in
there." But he noted there may have been drugs in the locker at one
time or in an adjacent locker.

Yet another measure in the educational zero-tolerance philosophy,
school districts across the region have employed drug-sniffing dogs
to keep drugs off campus. Some of those districts are Passaic, Wayne
Hills and Wayne Valley, Manchester Regional, Northern Highlands
Regional, and Clifton.

But some administrators question the tactic, believing it treads on
students' privacy rights.

In Paterson, some school trustees have balked at the idea and the
images it conjures in a mostly minority city.

"The first thing that crops up is the Sixties," school board
President Alonzo Moody said. "I used to watch TV and see dogs taking
chunks out of humans, and people relishing it. Just viciousness.
There was more compassion for animals than there was for a race of
people."

"I would hope that students know enough about American history to
realize that's a problem," said J. C. Salyer, an attorney with the
American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

The K-9 effort is usually a collaboration between school districts
and their county sheriff's department, which provides the dogs and
their trainers.

Administrators say the exercise deters students from bringing drugs
to school. Some say they realize that there are students who use and
sell drugs outside of school, but they are concerned about keeping
the substances away from other students.

"I think it's my responsibility as superintendent to make sure our
students go to a safe, clean environment," said Clifton
Superintendent William Liess, noting that police officers have
patrolled the high school for 30 years and the district is installing
surveillance cameras there.

In most schools, the searches are random. Only the administration is
notified. Teachers and students find out when they are ordered to
close and lock classroom doors until notified -- a "lockdown" -- such
as the one encountered by the Bergenfield High student who was late.

Technically, school districts are on safe legal ground in doing the
searches. Lockers are school property, and students are supposed to
be informed of that before they are issued a locker.

Some case law concerning schools across the country indicates that
wide-ranging searches of backpacks, cars, and the body can't be made
without reasonable suspicion.

In the 1980 case of New Jersey vs. T.L.O., a principal at Piscataway
High School searched the pocketbook of a female student -- identified
only by her initials -- looking for cigarettes. He found marijuana
paraphernalia and turned her over to the police, who helped bring
delinquency charges against the girl.

The state Supreme Court decided in 1985 that where police need
probable cause to initiate a search, school officials only need a
reasonable suspicion. If a principal suspects a student is carrying
drugs or a weapon, he or she can search the student's backpack, car,
and body.

Schoolwide locker searches are not based on reasonable suspicion. But
since they are school property, the lockers can generally be searched
at any time and for any reason, as long as it's in the interest of
school rules and the student body.

"I'm not sure that's quite right," said Salyer of the ACLU.
"Ownership has never been the defining factor over whether you have a
privacy interest. . . . It's like telling everyone you're going to
make them prove their innocence," Salyer said.

Two members of Paterson's school board are vocal about allowing the
dogs to roam high school halls in that city. They say drug problems
are pervasive, inside and outside school.

"A lot of kids welcome [the dogs]. I think the only ones who don't
welcome it are the ones that are guilty," said board member Juan
"Mitch" Santiago.

Santiago and fellow board member Dan Vergara Sr. raised the issue
several months ago. But the idea fell on deaf ears. Moody, the board
president, and several residents expressed concern over the
connotations of German shepherds in a mostly black and Hispanic
school.

Besides, Santiago's accounts of drugs in schools -- the board member
claimed a search would uncover a lot of marijuana, and even heroin
and crack -- are unfounded, Moody said.

"There's no indication to say that's going on," said the 55-year-old
Moody, who is also director of the city's Youth Services Bureau.

Allowing the dogs to sniff at lockers opens some kids up to
unwarranted suspicion, Moody argues.

Stoltenborg, of the Bergenfield police, said that the dogs' noses are
so discriminating, they can smell drugs that are long gone.

"If I take this," he said, holding up a small bag of marijuana, "and
stick it in between this book, put it in the locker for five minutes
and take it out, that dog is going to catch it."

So the locker at Bergenfield High with no drugs inside -- despite
Rex's fervent reaction -- may have contained drugs at one point.
Maybe there were drugs in an adjacent locker, Stoltenborg said.

"It's going to make that kid think, 'That dog was on my locker for
something,' " the police lieutenant said.

These fine points cause Paterson's Moody to hesitate.

"Say a drug dealer buys a drink. Pays for it at the store. You buy a
drink. You get the change. You get the dollar bill . . . the residue
is on there. The residue is on you," he points out. "When the dog
stops you, how do you explain that?

"You're going to be questioned. There's a presumption that you're
involved in something. I'm a little bit leery of going that way
because you have to give up some of your time to satisfy an inquiry."

Stoltenborg and Bergenfield High Principal Michael Kuchar insist the
procedure won't be onerous.

"If there are no drugs inside, that's fine. The student is free to
go. This is just a preventive measure," Kuchar said.

If a dog makes a "hit," typically the locker is subject to a search
by school officials. In the first run at Bergenfield, it stopped
there. Subsequently, law enforcement would contact the student's
parents and either make a consent search or obtain a warrant.

"It takes a lot of man-hours," Stoltenborg said. "We're not looking
to catch a kid with a joint. You're not going to stop kids from doing
drugs."

The ACLU's Salyer, however, questions the cooperative relationship
between police and schools -- which officials from both areas
typically say is a step in the right direction.

"If it's decided the law enforcement officers are going to get a
warrant and search that bag, it's not to find the kids who have drug
problems and give them some help," Salyer said. "It's sort of running
roughshod over the students."

But for some, the threat of drugs outweighs the dogs' historical
image or ambiguities surrounding the issue of privacy.

"Maybe they misused the dogs in the past, but I wasn't there. I
didn't use the dogs," Santiago, the Paterson school trustee, said.
"Not only am I a minority, that's just not my mentality. If every
district is doing it, how come we can't?"