NO DRUGS FOUND IN SCHOOL SEARCH

NEWTON TWP. - Accompanied by patrolmen from Scranton, Old Forge and
Scott Twp., the K-9s paced between desks, stopping for a split-second
at this hot-pink notebook, that winter parka.

At the school's invitation, four K-9 units, police, representatives
of the district attorney's office and school administrators descended
on Abington Heights Middle School on Friday morning in a search for
drugs.

"Our number-one goal this year in the school district is to address
substance abuse in our schools," Superintendent Michael Mahon said.
"That includes counseling and working within our community.
Enforcement is another important aspect of that."

The search yielded no illegal substances.

Whining softly and pulling at his leash, Grizzly -- a dog with the
Scranton Police Department -- nipped at a black backpack and pulled
it to the floor.

Principal Edward Kairis and Assistant Superintendent Thomas Quinn
unzipped the bag and searched through each pocket, pulling out its
contents and examining each article. When they found nothing, they
checked the bags nearby.

A lavender backpack, a quilted messenger bag, a Nike duffel and about
a dozen others yielded colored pencils, lip gloss and orthodontic
wax, but no drugs.

Two plastic bags full of powdery brown substances attracted extra
scrutiny. One was labeled "white ash" and was deemed to be decayed
leaves for a science class. Police consensus determined the other to
be powdered chocolate, sugar and cinnamon for hot cocoa.

A navy-blue backpack contained an inhaler. "This is supposed to be
with the school nurse," Mr. Kairis said, setting the bag aside.

Attention to drug abuse within the district grew last year after 18
high school students were sent to drug rehabilitation, and a recent
graduate died of a heroin overdose.

Frank Castellano, Lackawanna County deputy district attorney for the
juvenile unit, was there at the school's request, he said. His job is
to ensure that the search is conducted legally, making sure
administrators -- not police -- are the ones to look through bags, as
school officials need only a "reasonable suspicion" to search,
whereas police need "probable cause."

K-9s are trained to respond to the scent of marijuana, cocaine,
crack, Ecstasy, methamphetamines and heroin, Scranton Patrolman Scott
Stelmak said.

Although nothing turned up, the dogs' behavior indicated some bags
may have held or been near drugs at some point.

The dogs' noses are extremely sensitive, Patrolman Stelmak said. He
likened their experience to that of catching the scent of a batch of
chocolate-chip cookies, fresh from your mother's oven.

"It's a warm spring day. The windows are open. From a half-block
away, you can smell those chocolate-chip cookies," he said. But if
you go inside and find that your siblings ate the cookies before you
got there, he asked, "Are you wrong?"

Overall, administrators said they were pleased with the results of
the search.

"If someone had asked me before this, I would say, 'I do not think any
of our seventh-or eighth-graders are bringing drugs here," Mr. Kairis said
after the search. "But to just assume that would be naive."