PETITION FOR DRUG SEARCHES BEGINS

Support for drug-detecting dogs in Boulder Valley high schools continues to
grow.

A Monarch High School parent said she collected 150 signatures in support
of the idea during Saturday night's boys' varsity home basketball game --
the first night of the drive.

Leslie Halladay also said a Broomfield parent picked up a copy of the
petition and plans to circulate it around her city's high school. Parents
from Boulder also said they were interested in supporting the movement,
Halladay said.

"This is just the beginning," she said.

Halladay said she hopes to have 20 parents from around the Boulder Valley
School District at a school board meeting on March 13. She plans to present
the board with the petitions at that time.

Halladay is among a handful of parents who are concerned about drugs in
schools, particularly after the Feb. 2 ecstasy related death of 16-year-old
Brittney Chambers. Brittney's friends obtained the pills during a drug sale
inside a Monarch High School restroom.

During a meeting with Louisville police Wednesday night, parents were
surprised to learn that the school district was reluctant to allow officers
to use K-9 units to sniff out drugs.

Halladay quickly found herself thrust into a fiery public debate, something
she said she is not entirely comfortable with but is nevertheless willing
to stand up for her belief.

"I don't think it will make the problem go away ... but it could save a
life," she said. "I am just a concerned parent wanting to help. We just
can't sit back in apathy and wait for someone else to do something."

Opponents to the proposal say the use of drug-detecting dogs would be
disruptive and a violation of students' rights of privacy.

Boulder County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Williams, who heads the county's K-9
unit, said dogs are less invasive than searching lockers by hand because
only those lockers in the area the dog alerts on would be checked. It would
be up to school officials, not the officers, to open the lockers, he said.

Halladay is encouraging other parents who want to support the drive to
leave their name with their school's counseling office where she will
collect the names.