DOGS SNIFF FOR DOPE AT METRO SCHOOLS

Regular Searches Key Part Of Prevention Strategy

With drug-related problems on the rise in Metro high schools,
administrators are turning to the regular use of drug-sniffing dogs
as another tactic to keep the drug trade out of schools.

This month, a trained dog and its handler scoured the hallways,
parking lots and classrooms of 11 Metro middle and high schools
looking for trace scents of illegal drugs or alcohol.

And while most Midstate school directors say they use canines
occasionally, Metro officials say they plan to keep running the
random, unannounced searches regularly to see if the threat of
getting caught helps curtail the flow of illegal drugs.

"This strategy is not so much to catch them as it is to prevent
them," said Ralph Thompson, assistant superintendent of student
services for Metro schools. "We want students and parents to know
we're taking this very seriously."

While classes are in session, the dogs sniff along lockers in the
hallways. They occasionally enter a classroom once the students have
left the room -- and left all their property, such as backpacks or
purses, behind to be sniffed. Administrative offices as well as
staff and student parking lots are fair game for the search dogs,
too, Thompson said.

If the dog picks up a scent, security officers then have cause to
open a locker or request that a student unlock his or her car.
Anyone caught with drugs is expelled for a year and sent to an
alternative school, according to Metro's zero-tolerance policy.

So far, the search dogs have detected a few scents that could have
been several days old, but no contraband.

"We're excited obviously that we haven't found anything yet, but ...
the goal is not necessarily to find anything so much as to prevent
students from bringing items to campus," Thompson said.

Overall offenses involving alcohol, tobacco or other illegal drugs
were down districtwide last school year, but the incidents rose by
32 percent in Metro's high schools. Thompson attributes part of the
rise to increased weapons searches that often turn up illegal substances.

School resource officers who work full time in the schools often
conduct weapons searches randomly as students get off the bus or
walk into school, Thompson said. Although Metro police have
qualified canines, the drug-sniffing searches are being performed by
a hired contractor because police officers can't do random
drug searches without cause, said Lt. Coleman Beard of Metro's
School Resource Officer unit.

"As law enforcement professionals, we would have to have probable
cause or a warrant to do a search like that," Beard said.

But for school officials, the threshold for searches drops from
"probable cause" to "reasonable suspicion" that drugs may be in the
school, Metro safety and security director Steve Keel said.

The legality concerns Bob Teague, whose oldest son recently
graduated from Hillwood High School. He said drugs were never a
concern for him because his children were on the straight and
narrow, but if he learned that drug dogs were sniffing around his
younger son's Bellevue Middle School classroom, Teague said
he'd wonder if the department was overstepping.

"It seems too heavy-handed at this point to go in and randomly
search a school grounds unless there's probable cause," Teague said.
"The threat of a search is already there, and I think that should be
a sufficient deterrent."

But students like Jaleesa Webster welcome any enforcement that leads
to a safer school. Webster, 17, is a junior at Pearl-Cohn High
School, where there were 16 drug-related offenses last school year.
She said she's looking forward to seeing drug-sniffing dogs in her
classrooms.

"I don't do drugs, so it doesn't matter to me," she said. "I think
they should be doing this every day."

More cameras in areas that seem to have drug activity and continued
random weapon searches also are on the safety agenda this year,
Thompson said. The privately contracted dog handler is paid
$225-$300 per search. The district plans to put out a request for
proposals next year if it decides to continue the searches, Keel said.

For some school districts, cost is the biggest barrier to stepping
up drug enforcement. Drugs are a problem in Dickson County like
everywhere else, Schools Director Charlie Daniel said, but budget
cuts have left the district with just one police resource officer at
the alternative school. The other 13 schools have no security staff.

"Our schools are safe, and we do a good job monitoring with our
existing staff," Daniel said. "But I have heard comments from
parents who've made statements that they'd like to see SROs in our
schools and more security."

In Sumner County, drug dogs occasionally are utilized for random
searches at the high schools. But the schools have no new
initiatives that deal with drug enforcement because there's not
enough money to go around, spokesman Steve Doremus said.

"Due to cuts in federal funding, we're struggling to maintain the
same level of programs that we've had in the past," he said.