DRUG DOGS IN SCHOOL FACE ROUGH GOING

District Has Concerns About Palm Bay Plan

PALM BAY - If city officials have their way, school resource officers
at three Palm Bay schools will have drug-sniffing dogs as full-time assistants.

But such an arrangement is far from a done deal. The district
superintendent's office has asked questions about the necessity of
such a program and raised concerns about expanded duties for officers
and liability issues.

City Manager Lee Feldman hopes to make a direct pitch to the school
board about the need for the dogs, which would be trained to sniff
out illicit drugs, gunpowder and possibly other substances. The city
would provide the non-aggressive dogs at Palm Bay and Bayside high
schools and Southwest Middle School, and hopes to also put a dog in
its first municipal charter school, Patriot Campus, possibly as soon
as next year.

No date has been set for any meeting between city staff and the school board.

Area Superintendent Tom McIntyre, one of three school officials who
met with Palm Bay officials in November to see the dogs in action,
said a majority of behavioral referrals stem from tardiness or
disrespect, and at Bayside, for example, more than half of the
reported drug incidents involved prescription medications that
wouldn't be picked up by dogs normally not trained to detect them.

"Don't get me wrong. One (drug incident) is too many," McIntyre said.
"But for one-half of one percent of the referrals, do we need a
full-time measure?"

Furthermore, he said nearly all the weapons brought to school are
knives that dogs couldn't detect. His biggest concern is more
responsibility for already-overworked resource officers.

Feldman said school resource officers have told him "there is a small
but significant minority of students who use and bring drugs on
campus" and wondered how many more cases would be discovered if dogs
were involved. He said the city is ready to pay about $1,200 a year
to fund the program on a trial basis.

"We need to worry about making kids safe. The issues and the need is
now," he said.

School Superintendent Richard DiPatri, in a Dec. 4 memo to Feldman,
wrote, "Placing a full-time drug dog on campus gives a public
perception that drug use is out of control, and that is simply not
the case." He said dogs would change the role of school resource
officers. "Animals, even work dogs, require care, grooming and attention."

And he questioned whether the dogs would bite if aggravated and how
staff or students with canine allergies would fare.

DRUG INCIDENTS RARE

The district's policy for police dogs in schools is to use local and
county police-trained dogs to sniff for bombs or narcotics with
probable cause when students are not the buildings. So far this year,
the three public schools that would host the canines have seen
several dozen drug and weapons incidents among the thousand of
behavioral referrals.

At Bayside High School since August, 20 of 3,487 referrals were
related to drugs, McIntyre said.

In the 2005-06 school year at Southwest, school resource officer
Heather Humes-Greene said she had four cases involving weapons and 4
involving drugs. So far this school year, she has had two instances
of marijuana possession.

But Humes-Greene favors bringing dogs in for more than drug
deterrence. "They would help us bond with the kids. Some kids don't
want to talk to me but you can build a relationship with the dog," she said.

Palm Bay High Principal John Thomas said he'd need a lot more
information before deciding about sniffer dogs in his school.

"We haven't had any guns on campus since I've been here going back to
1998. Ninety-nine percent of students are excellent kids. I wouldn't
want them to be worried about having dogs in the halls," he said.

Shalini Mirpuri, a freshman at Bayside High, likes the idea of dogs
that sniff for gunpowder and drugs, but questioned their use for less
serious contraband. "For the betterment of the school to be safe,
it's a good idea. But those who use tobacco or alcohol only hurt themselves."

Steve Szilegyi of Grant, whose daughter Deanna is in eighth grade at
Southwest Middle School, would welcome the dogs.

"It's an excellent idea. The schools can't handle it alone and it
would give the resource officers more tools."

He's has no concerns about the dogs getting aggressive. "We have a
dog. Most kids have a dog at home. The dogs probably behave better
than the kids."

WORD SPREADS

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the mass shootings at
schools in Littleton, Colo., and West Paducah, Ky., among other
places, the use of trained dogs in schools has risen.

Interquest Detection Canines of Houston offers school detection and
deterrence programs using drug-sniffing dogs to 1,500 public and
private schools in 22 states. The company does random sweeps in
schools at $200 per visit, sniffing for everything from alcohol and
tobacco to prescription and illegal drugs and gunpowder. Dogs check
lockers, gym areas, vehicles, vacated classrooms, parking lots and
school perimeters.

Vice president Mike Ferdinand said they've never had one of their
dogs bite a student.

"People don't know how effective these dogs are. The first time you
find something, the word spreads like wildfire. It gives you a
barometer of what's on campus."

He said once a school decides to bring dogs in, it's essential that
administration, staff and parents understand how they will be used.

Ferdinand claims his dogs found 200 guns last year on campuses
nationwide, ranging from a loaded revolver hidden in a backpack to
rifles on racks in parked trucks.

ACLU CONCERNED

While some law enforcement and school officials call the dogs a great
tool, Kevin Aplin of the Brevard County chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union warns they can be misused.

"Students do have constitutional rights," he said. "It's important
that in their zeal for safe schools, those rights are not overstepped."

Aplin said there must be cause for a search, and dogs should not be
allowed to sniff students or their possessions randomly.

"There are some constitutional as well as safety issues," he said.

Aplin said school dogs could engender student distrust, and he and
other critics say dogs create intimidation and fear.

The ACLU filed a federal suit against school and police officials in
South Dakota for a botched search with a drug-sniffing dog. Seventeen
American Indian plaintiffs claimed a dog escaped its handler in a
kindergarten class, chased screaming children and traumatized
children in other classes who were scared of dogs.

PRAISE FROM SCHOOLS

Despite stories of dogs run amok, schools that use them tout their success.

"It's having the intended effect. Parents want to do whatever it
takes to stop drug and alcohol use," said Dana Shelburne, principal
at La Jolla High School in southern California, where Interquest has
offered its services for two years. "When we first suggested it, the
PTA was polarized, but over the course of time, the majority is in favor."

If a search shows contraband, Shelburne asks the student if he or she
has contraband. "Then we call parents and tell then we found X,Y,Z.
If they're under the influence, we call school police."

Shelburne said student assemblies demonstrate the dog's
effectiveness. "Dogs find beer on backpacks laid down at a party
three days ago, or if they used marijuana the night before, the
residue is on their chair."

She said students have agreed to go into rehabilitation centers,
citing the dogs' presence as their motivation.

But it's not always about major finds. No weapons have been found at
the school, and so far this school year, only nicotine has been detected.

"The word is out," Shelburne said. "I can't control what they do a
half block away or at home, but we know the school is safe."

She said many students praise the dog program. "They don't want the
peer pressure. The dogs give students a perfect excuse not to use."

The Bay School District in Tampa is on its fourth sniffer dog. Judy
Vandergrift, assistant superintendent, said dogs do random checks of
lockers or parking lots. "You ought to stand by the restrooms when
they hear the dogs are on campus. There's lots of flushes. You know
they're getting rid of stuff."

Sniffer dogs have been used in British schools for decades, and are
popular in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Sweden.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT SNIFFER DOGS CAN DETECT

Illicit narcotics including cannibis, cocaine, and heroin.

Gunpowder from guns and bullets or from fireworks.

Alcohol.

Nicotine from cigarettes, chewing tobacco and cigars.

Prescription drugs

THE LAW ON DOGS IN SCHOOLS

The U.S. Supreme Court hasn't ruled specifically on the use of
sniffer dogs in schools, but in one case found "there must be
reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up
evidence that the student has violated . . . either the law or the
rules of the school."

A South Carolina federal district court in 2006 awarded $1.6 million
to 140 students from the Berkeley County School District who were
ordered to their school floor by police officers while dogs sniffed
them for illegal drugs. No drugs were found.

According to "Legal Guidelines for Student Searches at Public
Schools" from the Florida Attorney General's office, there is no
legal justification required for a canine sniff search.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Education said schools
would need to follow the attorney general's guidelines for using
sniffer dogs in schools. But because districts aren't required to
report whether they use dogs, she couldn't say how many Florida
schools have them in place.

State case law says a search in a school, initiated by a school
official, is subject to the less-stringent "reasonable suspicion"
standard. A trained scent-sniffing dog may be walked around school
lockers and grounds or vehicles without violating a student's
constitutional rights. But a student can't be detained during the search.

Case law also shows that an alert by a sniffer dog gives both school
officials and law enforcement officers probable cause to conduct a
search without first obtaining a search warrant.

CURRENT POLICY

Dogs are used in Brevard County schools as part of the process to
sniff for bombs or narcotics only when students are not present.

The district cooperates with the Brevard County Sheriff's Office and
local law enforcement agencies in these instances. Beyond law
enforcement, seeing-eye dogs are allowed in schools, and a group
called Care to Read assists at-risk students in reading by using therapy dogs.