'TRACE AMOUNT' OF COCAINE FOUND IN TM/HS BOYS BATHROOM LAST WEEK

Contraband-sniffing Canine Sweeps School

The first-ever canine search for narcotics at Telluride Middle/High
School takes place this afternoon.

On Friday, Nov. 10, school officials called the Telluride Marshal's
Office to report that a substance appearing to be cocaine had been
found in a boys' bathroom.

"The one good part of this whole story," said Telluride Schools
Superintendent Mary Rubadeau, "is that a student did alert us" to the
presence of what was determined by officers conducting a field test
to be cocaine.

"We just feel so good about that - and that the kids in this school
know where the bottom line is. They want to have a safe and drug-free
school, too."

Telluride Chief Marshal Jim Kolar said an officer's sample test "did
test presumptive-positive for cocaine;" he went on to explain that
presumptive-positive "is the technical term for a field test."

After its Tuesday meeting, the Telluride R-1 School Board issued a
statement reporting it had just "passed a regulation augmenting the
district's policy on student searches, which permits the use of a
canine to detect contraband."

San Miguel County Sheriff's Deputy Sham Foster, handler of the
contraband-sniffing canine, will take the dog "along the lockers" in
TM/HS hallways, Rubadeau explained. "If the dog smells anything, she
alerts - she will sit down in front of the locker. Then we know who
the lockers are assigned to and we will ask the student to open the
locker for us."

The Telluride Marshals Office, which does not have a
narcotics-detecting canine, asked the sheriff's office if Deputy
Foster could take charge of "sweeping" the school.

Asked if the dog could have detected what Kolar described as "just a
trace" amount of cocaine found Friday - too small a sample, in fact,
to be sent out for laboratory testing - Rubadeau said, "She
definitely would have found it."

The dog will return after today's initial search, Rubadeau added, "on
a purely random basis, at least once a month," to sweep lockers and
anyplace "that's unoccupied by students, basically, when the kids are
in class," and check as well temporarily abandoned items "that
someone isn't holding onto."

Referring to narcotics use on school property, Rubadeau pronounced
herself confident that "a very small group of kids engages in this behavior."

Although "it is unfortunate to take such steps" as importing police
dogs "for such a small group," she added, "it is important to send a
loud and clear message that there is no tolerance for drugs in the school.

"I know of several schools that have used this in the past," she
added, referring to bringing in the narcotics-detecting police dog,
"and while it's not that unusual, it isn't a step we've taken before."

Teachers met with students Thursday "right at the beginning of
school," Rubadeau said, each with "a script to read to the kids so
every student had the same information about what happened, when it
happened, how it happened and what the follow-up was going to be."

In an official statement, Rubadeau said, "The safety of our students
is the highest priority for the district. We believe that only a
small number of students are involved with cocaine; however, the
presence of drugs in the school will not be tolerated. We will
implement the new regulation using judgment and respect. The bottom
line is that our students, parents and community expect and deserve a
safe and drug-free environment. The random searches with the canine
will protect the rights of all students to enjoy a safe school."