SCHOOL DRUG RAID SLAMMED

A constitutional lawyer says the use of dope-sniffing dogs and the
searching of students at Hudson High School is ``extremely
dangerous.''

One of the country's leading constitutional lawyers says he is
bothered by a recent random spot check for drugs at Hudson High School
that included drug-sniffing dogs and the frisking of about a dozen
students.

``Random surveillance is extremely dangerous,'' Montreal lawyer Julius
Grey said in an interview yesterday. ``You could reduce crime by
having cameras everywhere, but the price in terms of privacy is too
high. Bringing in dogs and doing this kind of search for no reason
seems to me to be an invasion of privacy.''

But parents of students at the Hudson school have gone so far as to
praise the use of drug-sniffing dogs in a search of students and
lockers about two weeks ago, in which one student was found to be
carrying something ``suspicious.''

``Parents are pleased that something is being done,'' said Patricia
Gauthier, chairman of the governing board of Hudson High. ``We
certainly condone the administration making every effort to remove
drugs from the school. The dogs are just another tactic.''

But the practice of using dogs to sniff out drugs seems to be highly
unusual in the Montreal area. Officials of the Lester B. Pearson
School Board said yesterday they don't know of other schools doing it,
and Michael Cohen, a spokesman for the English Montreal School Board,
said he's never heard of it being done here.

And if it seems to point to a particularly serious drug problem at
Hudson High, school administrators and parents insist that's not so -
it's just the practice of a school that wants to get really tough with
drug users.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in November 1998 that teachers and
principals have the right to search students on school premises if
they believe school rules are being broken. The justices concluded
that ridding schools of the growing scourge of weapons and drugs means
having the ability to search students without obtaining a warrant. But
the court said educators must use caution.

Diane Ratcliffe, a Pearson commissioner for the Hudson area who has a
son in Grade 9 at the school, said the parents she's spoken to have
been very happy that the school is trying to address the problem.

``It lets the kids who are doing drugs know that sporadic checks will
be done. We're trying to give the message that drugs don't have a
place in the school,'' Ratcliffe said yesterday.

As for Grey's concerns about an invasion of privacy, she said it's a
school and community issue. ``I'm not sure Mr. Grey's opinion means a
lot within our community.''

Hudson police director Lewis Hayes said the police went in, at the
request of the principal and the school board, with two dogs - one for
lockers and one for people. The dogs sniffed lockers and walked up and
down classroom aisles, sniffing students, for almost two hours. Those
identified by the dogs were taken into the hall and searched by a
police officer, with their hands up against the wall.

Hayes said the dogs, which were trained by Canada Customs, can sniff
drugs on students even if they smoked marijuana the day before.

It is the first year the school has decided to use drug-sniffing dogs
in its building - and it is something the school plans to continue
doing. This was the second search - the first, earlier in the year and
just of lockers, turned up nothing.

Hayes said he didn't know about frisking, because students in his
group were simply asked to empty their pockets. But Jim Laberge,
vice-principal of the school of 650 students, said about 12 students
were frisked by the team he was with. Also, about seven or eight
lockers were opened.

``This is part of a program to keep the school as drug-free as
possible,'' Laberge said yesterday. ``And it confirmed our position
that it's not a major problem here. They found very little.''

In fact, he said that ``something suspicious'' was found on only one
student and it was taken to be analyzed.

``We know there are students who use drugs, but we want to keep it to
a minimum,'' Laberge said, adding that the school also has a drug
educator. ``Some students were upset, but we're getting a lot of
positive feedback from students and parents.''

Marcus Tabachnick, Pearson school-board chairman, said that using
drug-sniffing dogs is not a general practice of the board, but that
there are no rules against it.

``If a principal has just cause, then they can do it,'' he said
yesterday. ``It could just be for one student, but at what level do
you tolerate it? The board's policy is zero tolerance.''

He said that a school administrator was present at all times to
protect the rights of the students. But one parent of a student in the
school, who didn't want to be named, said she thought the use of
drug-sniffing dogs was ``extreme.''

``I find the measure draconian; I don't know that it was necessary,''
she said.

In a survey of the school's Grade 10 and 11 students, 74 per cent said
that involving the police discourages drug use in the school. Some
comments from students in the survey:

- - ``The police should check every student, and if they find drugs, the
student should be punished.''

- - ``Next time you do a drug search, if the dog smells something,
search completely until you find it. We heard of too many people
getting stuff past these dogs by hiding their stuff.''

- - ``The school had a lot of drugs on both days and nothing was
found.''

- - ``Use stricter rules instead of involving the police.''

- - ``The more we have drug busts, the better. ... It's a good way to
eliminate drugs.''