PATERSON TO DECIDE ON SCHOOL DRUG SEARCHES

PATERSON -- Drug-sniffing dogs will roam the halls of the city's high
schools if the Board of Education approves a resolution at tonight's
meeting.

Under the plan, the district would discuss with the Passaic County
Sheriff's K-9 unit how, and how often, the trained German shepherds
would sniff lockers for drugs.

"I know for a fact we're going to find marijuana, crack, maybe
heroin," said Mitch Santiago, the board's vice president. "I know
we're going to find something."

The specifics are unclear. Searches could be performed as frequently
as once a month or once or twice a year at random.

"It's a preventive measure," said school board attorney Joseph
Ryglicki. "It's like random drug testing for a police officer or a
bus driver. You can play the odds."

Typically, Ryglicki said, students are informed that the school, as
the owner of all lockers, reserves the right to search them.

At a prearranged time, students would stay in their homerooms while
three or four dogs roam the halls.

Capt. Bill Mullanaphy of the Sheriff's Department said the searches
would take about 45 minutes to an hour.

Ryglicki said North Bergen schools have conducted such searches.
Mullanaphy said Clifton and Hawthorne schools have used dogs from the
Sheriff's Department to sniff for drugs.

Dan Vergara Sr., youth director at Paterson's Hispanic Multi-Purpose
Center, said he will bring students to tonight's meeting so they can
tell of the impact drugs have had on their lives and their friends.

"I've lost a couple of players on my basketball team as well as in my
youth center," Vergara said. "One of them was coerced into bringing
[drugs] to school, holding it in his locker, holding it on the
corner."

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in Kennedy High School.

"I know for a fact we have drugs in our school system," Santiago
said. "The parents and children deserve better than that."