DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS PATROL MORE SCHOOLS

WHEN a drug-sniffing Belgian Malinois named Shatzi found two grams of
cocaine inside a student's backpack at Sachem High School North early
this year, the entire student body knew about it immediately.

The cocaine was synthetic and the student was a volunteer for a
presentation being given inside a packed gymnasium by Andy Henellin,
president of Dogs by Andy, a company he founded in Manorville, on Long
Island, that, among other things, trains dogs to sniff for contraband.

Teaching students how difficult it is to keep dogs from finding
illegal drugs was the point of the presentation.

"We want the students to know that if they go up against the dogs,
they lose," explained Mr. Henellin, who said he has contracts with 12
to 15 schools on Long Island.

Dogs in hallways, their noses turned to the air for the scent of
contraband, are increasingly common in public schools on Long Island
and in Westchester, New Jersey and Connecticut, school and law
enforcement officials said.

While many said that the dogs help keep drugs away, some students and
civil rights groups called the dog searches not only inaccurate but
also frightening.

The atmosphere created by taking police dogs into schools is
"incompatible with nurturing environments that are supposed to be
conducive to adolescent education," said Donna Lieberman, executive
director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

At Sachem High School North on Long Island, dog searches were
instigated as a "preventative deterrent," said Charles J. Murphy,
the district superintendent.

Dogs have searched the school twice since January, and no narcotics
have been found, though the dogs did indicate several lockers, which
were found to contain nothing illegal, Dr. Murphy said. Since the
first dog visit, no student has been found with drugs on school
property; previously, about one student was caught with marijuana
every month at Sachem North, he said.

Each dog search costs the district $500, Dr. Murphy
said.

There are no statistics on how many schools nationwide use dogs to
search for drugs, said Brittany A. Brown, a spokeswoman for the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Policies on the use of dogs in schools
vary by school districts around the region.

Of the districts that allow dog searches, some require students to
remain in classrooms when dogs are present; others allow dogs and
students to be in the same areas. None allow dogs to search students,
only lockers, parking lots and other common areas, school officials
said.

The searches are never on a set schedule, and their date is not
revealed in advance to the students, officials said.

In North Caldwell, N.J., dogs have searched West Essex Regional High
School twice this year, said Joseph F. Clark Jr., chief of the North
Caldwell Police Department. Only one locker had to be searched, he
said, and it was deemed clean.

"The point isn't so much to make arrests as it is to just make it as
hard as possible for anyone to bring drugs into school," Chief Clark
said.

The Connecticut Association of Boards of Education advocates using
drug dogs in schools, said Vincent A. Mustaro, the group's senior
staff associate for policy services.

Joseph V. Erardi Jr., superintendent for the Southington School
District in Connecticut, said the district works with the local
police, who search the high school randomly and at no charge. He said
that after numerous searches during the last five years, the dogs have
not led authorities to any illegal narcotics.

Dr. Erardi said he did not believe that the searches interfered with
the education process. "It is my belief that when dogs are on campus,
teaching is not disrupted," he said.

The issue made headlines in Connecticut last year when dogs searched
Canton High School the day before the senior prom in June. Fifteen
students whose lockers or cars were indicated by the dogs were pulled
out of class. Drugs -- a small amount of marijuana -- were found only
in one car, and a student was arrested.

Kelsey Jones, 18, now a freshman at the North Carolina School of the
Arts, was one of the Canton students whose locker was searched because
of a dog's reaction. She recalled being escorted from class and forced
to stand by her locker as an armed officer searched her belongings.

"I was thinking, 'Oh my God, what have I done?' " she said. "I felt
extremely accused."

Jonathan Matthews, legal director of the American Civil Liberties
Union of Connecticut, criticized the school board for the search and
succeeded in getting a small policy change. Now when a search dog
indicates a locker may hold drugs, a school administrator must take
note and then return to search the locker when the police officers are
gone.

"It made the police presence a little less than it was before, " Mr.
Matthews said.

The best-trained dogs have an accuracy rate of 85 to 90 percent, said
James Greco, head trainer for Long Island K-9 Service, which contracts
to conduct drug searches in 15 Long Island public schools, as well as
three private schools in Westchester and another in Hartford.

"No dog is 100 percent accurate," Mr. Greco said.

The demand for drug-detecting dogs in New Jersey spurred Debra Stone
to start Sniff Dogs, a company based in Summit, in September to
provide dogs to private homes to search for drugs. Since then, she has
contracted with schools from Bergen County to South Jersey to conduct
searches.

"Every month the number of schools increases," Ms. Stone
said.

At Mount Vernon High School in Westchester, law enforcement
authorities with dogs search for drugs when they find it necessary,
said Desiree Grand, a district spokeswoman. She said there had been
one search with dogs in the past year.

Karen Fisher, 14, a freshman at the school, said she thought the
police dogs were intimidating and ineffective at rooting out drugs.
She said that since the search, she had seen marijuana inside her
school three times.

"It's not necessary to bring dogs here," she said. "They shouldn't
do it."