Clean sweep

Drug-Sniffing Canines Find Nothing At BMHS

Drug-sniffing dogs swarmed Beloit Memorial High School Tuesday
afternoon in search of illegal substances.

The good news: They didn't find anything.

The search is standard school district procedure and is done at the
high school and both middle schools. For the past decade, schools have
been searched with K-9 units.

"This is a prevention model for us, not a reaction model. We want to
keep it a prevention model," said Fran Fruzen, coordinator of the Safe
and Drug-free Schools Program.

Officials don't believe Beloit schools have a problem. However, this
procedure helps prevent future problems from occurring because it
shows students that bringing illegal items to school is not tolerated
and items will be found.

"We intend to send a positive message to the school. We are there to
provide for the health and safety of the students. The district cares
about them. From time to time we will do some checking to ensure that
people are making good choices. We want to take a proactive measure,"
said Doug Reynolds, security and safety coordinator for the Beloit
School District, during a briefing at the police department before the
search.

The search was held with K-9 units from the Beloit Police Department,
along with units from the Monroe Police Department, the Green County
Sheriff's Department and the Walworth County Sheriff's Department.

"The school district is very well trained in how to handle this," said
Beloit Police Deputy Chief Norm Jacobs.

The district has policies and procedures in place for the staff to
follow when K-9 units come to the schools. The school was under a soft
lock down, which meant students and teachers couldn't leave their
classrooms while the search was being conducted. The high school has
about 2,200 students and more than 200 staff members.

"We welcome this," said BMHS Assistant Principal J.B. Elzy. "We want
to take a proactive measure to make sure that kids know that we take
whatever steps necessary to keep a safe and orderly
environment."

As the K-9 units made their way to the high school, students were
coming back from their lunch break. Principal Carlton Jenkins told
students over the intercom of what was coming and instructed them not
to leave their rooms.

Once at the school, K-9 units were assigned a school administrator who
would search lockers for anything suspicious.

During the search of the ground floor, Beloit's K-9 Nick went from
locker to locker sniffing away. As soon as he smelled something in one
of the lockers he jumped on the locker, barking to inform his handler,
Beloit Police Officer Brian Daugherty of his findings. Two
administrators then checked the locker and found nothing.

Daugherty explained dogs are trained to smell illegal substances, but
it doesn't necessarily mean they found anything. It could be that
someone was around an illegal substance the day before and the smell
was left on his or her belongings.

Superintendent Lowell Holtz, along with School Board President Kurt
Handrich and Vice President Kim Thompson, attended Tuesday's search.

"Beloit always tries to be in a prevention mode," Holtz said. "If kids
know these are our expectations they are less likely to bring things
to school that they shouldn't bring."

Thompson explained such searches are not uncommon in schools across
the country. She has been to conferences where there are vendors
advertising to undertake school searches.

Jacobs said Beloit's K-9 unit sometimes travels to other school
districts to help with sweeps.

When the search ended, Jenkins came back on the intercom and thanked
students for making good choices to keep the school safe and drug
free. Of the five K-9 units, there were two hits on lockers but
nothing was found.

Jenkins told students the search was part of the 21-day plan to
reinforce the "Purple Knight Pride."

"We're very proud of our students," he said. "Our students want a safe
and drug-free place."