SURREY TRUSTEES MAY HIRE DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

Private Security Firms Would Make Random Searches -- a Move Some Call
'Outrageous'

Surrey School Board wants to institute random searches by drug-sniffing
dogs in the district's schools.

The plan is to use drug-sniffing dogs from private security firms as
opposed to the RCMP because the police would need "probable cause" before
searching school classrooms and lockers.

The idea, which has been embraced by the school trustees, is the brainchild
of Surrey's Drug-Crime Task Force, which includes trustee Heather Stilwell
and three school administrators.

Stilwell said she and her five colleagues from the Surrey Electors Team
support the idea of using drug-sniffing dogs in Surrey's 117 public schools.

"We need more work in the area of enforcement," Stilwell said yesterday
"And the things that we would be looking at could include the drug-sniffing
dogs and random locker searches."

Surrey Const. Tim Shields said there is a drug problem in Surrey schools,
just as there is in other Lower Mainland schools.

"For that reason, we have to ask ourselves, 'Are we serious about
combatting the drug problem in schools. Is there anything we can legally
and ethically do to reduce the amount of drugs in schools?' "

But launching pre-emptive searches of school property would deviate from
the RCMP's current practice, Shields said.

RCMP "normally obtain search warrants before going through lockers because
a student has an expectation of privacy," he said.

Coun. Dianne Watts, chairwoman of the Drug-Crime Task Force, called the
plan to use private drug-sniffing dogs "a great idea."

"I think it's very important to realize that schools are a place of
learning," Watts said. "They're not marketplaces for the exchange of drugs."

Watts said she expects most searches to occur in high schools, but she
would not rule out having the dogs in elementary schools.

The searches would affect 62,000 students in the city's 18 secondary
schools and 99 elementary schools.

The trustees would put out to tender who gets the contract, but Port
Coquitlam's Black Tower Security is being considered as one of the
frontrunners for the contract, said Stilwell.

Civil libertarians were shocked by the "intrusive" nature of the proposed
searches, considering that the federal government and society is heading in
a totally different approach to marijuana, which is the drug most likely to
be found in the searches.

"The Surrey School Board seems to be adopting the war-on-drugs mentality,
which is an abysmal failure as we've seen in the United States," said
Murray Mollard, executive director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

"I think the use of an intrusive measure that furthers the war-on-drugs way
of approaching this is going to result in a much greater punishment than
the crime committed, where it's mere possession of a small amount of
marijuana is just out of step with the way society thinks about this now,"
Mollard said.

"I think society is moving away from treating drug use as a criminal matter."

A prominent marijuana activist termed the scheme "scandalous" and
"outrageous" and threatens to sue the school board if it goes ahead with
its plan.

"I would put a lot of money to any student that wanted to sue the Surrey
School Board and the school principal for a clear invasion of their
privacy," said Marc Emery, president of the B.C. Marijuana Party.

"I would definitely oppose that with a lawsuit if we could get some
actionable offence against the school board.

"Our job is to protect everyone in the cannabis culture, regardless of
their age, from outrageous incidents like this. . . .

"This idea that you need to bring in para-military drug-sniffing dogs and
create a heightened state of alert in the Surrey schools over marijuana is
absurd."

The school board disagrees.

"I personally think that this is something that could probably work quite
well," said Stilwell.

"We would use private security firms because, apparently, the RCMP have to
have probable cause before they could issue the dogs in the schools. And
they don't have the manpower, either."

When asked about legal ramifications or civil-liberty issues, Watts said:
"Civil libertarians, they have a lot of thoughts on a lot of things, but,
at the end of the day, I don't want my kids going to school and have other
kids trafficking drugs to them. Whatever deterrent works, then we need to
explore that."