CANTON SCHOOLS' DRUG SWEEP IN JUNE STILL REVERBERATES

CANTON - - Kelsey Jones, a fixture on the Canton High School honor
roll, was in pre-calculus the morning a police dog sniffed her locker
for drugs.

A voice over the public-address system had ordered students and
staffers to stay in their classrooms. Teachers were told in an e-mail
from Principal Gary Gula that police K-9 units were on school grounds
for a drug sweep authorized by the school board and
superintendent.

"Please do NOT discuss this with your students," Gula
stressed.

Jones, 18, then a senior, learned of the search after being escorted
from her class and brought face to face with several police officers
standing around her locker. One of them kept a hand on his gun.

"Everyone in the cafeteria was looking," Jones said. One officer "went
through every single book. ... It was a really violating feeling."

The June 5 sweep at Canton Middle and Canton High schools took less
than two hours and resulted in one arrest, yet the repercussions are
still being felt in this small Farmington Valley town. Some parents
have lashed out at the district and police, criticizing the sweep as
ineffective and disruptive. The school board has agreed to reassess
its search policy, and a review committee is to meet today.School
officials, however, steadfastly defend the tactic.

"We don't think our drug issue is different than any other town,"
school board Chairman Lou Daniels said, "but we're not naive enough to
think we don't have one."

On the morning of the sweep, police dogs alerted handlers to three
cars in the parking lot and six lockers. Neighboring lockers also were
searched. Of more than 15 students taken out of class to watch
officers comb through their belongings, one was found with a small
amount of marijuana - Jessica Mola, the senior class president.

Police seized the marijuana (a few stems and seeds, according to
Mola's mother) from a sunglass case inside Mola's Jeep Wrangler, which
has a Grateful Dead tire cover. Police issued her a summons to appear
in community court on a possession charge. School officials suspended
her for 10 days and barred her from the senior prom, which Mola helped
plan.

When Mola came home that afternoon, her mother, Vicki Ochenrider, said
the 17-year-old took an overdose of pain medication and needed
emergency treatment.

"They paraded her into the school, surrounded by police officers,
escorted her to her classroom to get her pocketbook and brought her
back to the main office," Ochenrider said. "Her mind-set was one of
utter humiliation. And fear."

The misdemeanor charge is to be cleared from Mola's record once she
completes community service. Police Chief Lowell Humphrey declined to
comment specifically about the sweep except to say that Mola's case
had been settled in court, and "I truly hope the individual involved
is receiving positive direction and support."

But for Jones, there is lingering indignation. One officer, she said,
questioned her about "residue" in an empty water bottle in her locker.
It was orange juice.

"It didn't even scare kids," Jones said of the sweep. She and other
students say students who were known to use or sell drugs generally
kept them in their pockets and backpacks.

"All this did was say, 'Don't put it in your locker; don't put it in
your car,'" said Jones, now a freshman at the University of North
Carolina School of Arts. "The kids who did drugs laughed at it."

'Gestapo Technique'

Southington, Enfield, Coventry, Portland, Windsor Locks and Vernon are
among the school districts that allow police dogs to search for
illegal substances. Windsor Locks Superintendent Gregory Little said
he has authorized three sweeps during the past year and a half,
yielding one arrest and zero "negative reaction from the parents,"
perhaps because they were well informed about the policy through
letters and televised school board meetings before the sweeps started
in March 2007, Little said.

Canton's policy has been in place since 2001, but June 5 was the first
time Canton Middle and Canton High schools were locked down to allow a
sweep during classes.

Superintendent Kevin D. Case said no specific threat triggered the
search. In the past two years, Case said, "We had a couple of
expulsions of students due to possession of illegal substances. So
that was one reason why the board of education decided to bring in the
sniffer dogs - because we want to make sure we don't have a problem."

Daniels said the district's search policy is "one tool in a toolbox"
that includes using Breathalyzers at school dances and working with
Canton's Community of Concern chapter, which educates families about
alcohol, drugs and smoking. "I feel comfortable that we did the right
thing," Daniels said.

Elisa L. Villa, a parent of a Canton High sophomore and a public
defender in Bristol, sharply disagreed and compared such searches to a
"Gestapo technique" that ostracizes kids who may need help.

"Do you treat children and students as aspiring criminals, or do you
treat them with respect?" said Villa, who organized a community
meeting after the sweep and has called on the school board to defer to
health and education experts when re-examining its search policy. The
board's policy committee is expected to make a recommendation on K-9
sweeps by January.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut has been monitoring
the Canton situation because the organization believes random drug
sweeps violate people's rights, Executive Director Andrew Schneider
said.

Nationally, however, courts have tended to favor schools in challenges
to drug searches, said Richard Kay, a constitutional law professor at
the University of Connecticut. "The Supreme Court has given school
districts pretty wide berth," he said.

Little To Do

Within days of the sweep, some of Jessica Mola's friends wore "Free
Jessi" T-shirts to school, and the worried father of one girl whose
locker was searched insisted that she take a home drug test.

Some students, including junior Michael Cahill, said they were
surprised that only Mola was caught. "We are rural, suburban, kind of
a wealthy area with nothing to do," said Cahill, a member of Canton
High's ESTEEM group, which talks to fifth-graders about avoiding drugs
and alcohol. "You go out on weekends and party and stuff."

Mola also was in ESTEEM. She was allowed to speak at graduation as
senior class president and is now a freshman at Pace University. Her
mother, Ochenrider, said she is talking about the arrest because she
wants the district to abandon its search policy and what she considers
the heavy-handed tactics of the police after seeing the toll they took
on her daughter.

"I could have lost my kid. Because of stems and seeds," Ochenrider
said. "In the bigger picture of life, it's not worth that. ... But the
law is the law. Jessica took her licks, went through the process and
paid her dues, like anyone else in America. But the emotional impact
is something I can't get over."