DOGS SNIFF FOR DRUGS, GUNS AT SCHOOLS

YORK -- Tosca, a nearly 70-pound Belgian Malinois canine, leaped up
on her hind legs and parked her paws on a library bookshelf. Then she
forced her black nose between two book spines.

One book tumbled to the floor. Two more met the same
fate.

Then she found it -- a small black case filled with cotton balls that
had been exposed to marijuana odor -- hidden behind the books.

"She will alert on the faintest of odor," trainer Joel Raines said as
Tosca sat and wagged her tail.

About a dozen York school principals and assistant principals watched
Tosca during a recent staged RAID (Resistance Against Illegal Drugs)
inspection at York Comprehensive High School. Tosca, a 5-year-old
drug and gunpowder sniffing dog, is a new weapon school leaders will
use to combat drugs and weapons in York schools.

"We're going to run into things you've probably never seen before,"
Raines told school leaders.

Tosca, one of 10 dogs used with RAID, is trained to recognize several
drugs, including cocaine and heroin. Raines, Tosca's handler and a
former Rock Hill police officer, said the effort is a proactive,
hands-on approach to curbing drugs and weapons in schools.

"We're not here to catch people," said Raines, RAID chief operation
officer. "We're here to deter."

RAID, a Spartanburg-based company, uses teams of dogs and former law
enforcement officers to find drugs at schools across the Carolinas,
Georgia and Texas. The private company, which has worked with the
State Law Enforcement Division and other law enforcement agencies,
provides services for Union County schools. It also serves Fort Mill
and Chester school districts.

The inspections in York will cost $500 a month; the school board
budgeted $6,075 for the upcoming school year.

Random inspections of classrooms, lockers and cars will be performed
several times a year at York Comprehensive High School, York Junior
High School and York One Academy. While elementary schools are not
scheduled to be inspected, Raines will do pop-up inspections with
Tosca at the district's middle school.

"The teachers will lock the doors," Raines said about a typical
one-hour school inspection. "Students can't move around. If they
can't move around, they can't get rid of what they got."

Keith McSwain, principal at Harold C. Johnson Middle School, favors
the school board's decision to hire RAID.

"It will prevent the possibility of students having illegal
substances at school," McSwain said. "That's a good thing."

Ethel Ingrum, principal at York One Academy, added, "This is just
another tool that we can use to ensure that our students have a safe
learning environment."

Drugs are only half of the issue.

In 2005, a 12-year-old Harold C. Johnson Middle School student
brought two unloaded guns to school. School officials discovered a
black semiautomatic .25-caliber gun. Another black .25-caliber
semiautomatic pistol was found in the student's coat pocket. He had
planned to sell his grandfather's weapons to another student, who
was absent from school that day, according to reports from the York
Police Department.

In 2004, four weapons were found on York school grounds, resulting in
the arrest of a 17-year-old, according to police.

Despite the weapon discoveries, superintendent Russell Booker said
York schools are safe. No guns were discovered during the 2005-06
school year, Booker said. He wants to continue the trend and issued a
warning:

"The kids need to know that at any point in time there could be an
inspection," Booker said.