ITHACA HIGH WILL USE DOGS TO HUNT DRUGS

ITHACA -- Drug-sniffing dogs will tour the halls and parking lots of Ithaca
High School in surprise sweeps this month. Their intentions: zeroing in on
any indication of drugs in lockers or cars.

The sweeps come at the suggestion of IHS Principal Ismael Villafane
reinforced by IHS Resource Officer Bryan Bangs, a member of the Ithaca
Police Department, and after many discussions with parents, staff and
student groups.

"Since I came to the high school in September, we've charged at least a
dozen students with marijuana possession," said Bangs, "and one student
with fifth-degree criminal sale of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor."

The sentence for anyone convicted of the latter charge can include a $500
fine or up to three months in jail.

Superintendent Judith Pastel will make a report on the decision to use the
dogs at tonight's meeting of the district's Board of Education.

Because of the sprawling campus design of the high school, dogs from the
canine units of both the Ithaca police and the Tompkins County sheriff's
departments will be used in the searches, Pastel said in a recent interview.

"Our high school is huge," Pastel said. "Even within one wing, there are a
lot of hallways and lockers, and multiple stories."

Neither classrooms nor students will be involved in the search, Pastel
said. The point is to discourage students from bringing drugs on campus.

Villafane said he suggested the use of drug-sniffing dogs to his
administrators and to Pastel last spring when New York State Police brought
in dogs trained to sniff out explosives following bomb threats at the high
school.

"But (before we did drug sweeps) we wanted to make sure everyone knew what
we would be doing and that we would have everyone's input," he said, "so it
took a while.

Bangs introduced the idea of using dogs in drug sweeps at the December
meeting of the Ithaca High PTA. After extensive discussions, the PTA
endorsed the idea at its April meeting.

Villafane met with the school's staff and Site-Based Council to be sure
there was support for the idea and understanding.

"We didn't want people to think we were searching kids or targeting groups
of kids," he said.

Villafane said that while serving as a school administrator in Austin,
Texas, his district called on a private agency to employ drug-detecting
dogs on campus.

"It was a long, but reassuring process," he said. "One dog alerts that
drugs may be present and a second dog validates the alert."

The dogs will be confined to the parking lots, locker rooms, and halls,
Villafane emphasized.

"If a student is walking in a hall the dogs are checking, we will ask the
student to go another way," he said.

Deborah O'Connor, treasurer of the IHS PTA, said one concern of parents is
that dogs could zero in on a locker that had drugs in it in the previous
school year, implicating the wrong student.

But Villafane said the scent of drugs lasts weeks, not months.

"It is true," he said," that a student might be in the presence of someone
using drugs and a jacket could absorb the smell and a dog could pick it up."

The point, he said, is to make schools safe and protect students from
anyone bringing drugs on campus.

"My hope," Pastel said, "is that these searches will not only act as a
deterrent, but for those who feel they can get by having drugs in their
cars and lockers, we'll be able to identify those places and put a stop to
that.

"It's serious, an automatic five-day suspension with a superintendent's
hearing and a request for a drug assessment of the student," she said.