HAWAII SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES LOCKER SEARCHES, ANTI-DRUG DOGS

The state Board of Education last night voted 8-4 to approve
controversial changes to the public school system's disciplinary
rules, including allowing for suspicionless locker searches and
drug-sniffing dogs.

For nearly two years, board members have been grappling with sweeping
changes to rules governing student conduct and discipline. A major
point of disagreement has been whether to allow searches of student
lockers solely at the discretion of principals and school
administrators, and the use of drug-sniffing dogs.

"I am thinking of the 99 percent of our students who are entitled to
safe environments," board member Mary Cochran said last night.

The four members who voted no were board chairman Garrett Toguchi,
vice chairwoman Lei Ahu Isa, Carol Mon Lee and Kim Coco Iwamoto.
Breene Harimoto was absent.

The policy will be reviewed by the state attorney general and must be
signed by Gov. Linda Lingle before it can take effect.

Board members debated at length over whether locker searches should be
allowed with or without cause.

Iwamoto offered an amendment to remove language that would allow for
suspicionless searches, but the majority of board members voted it
down.

Ahu Isa said she does not support suspicionless searches, saying
students have privacy rights.

"This is unconstitutional," she said.

But Kaua'i member Maggie Cox, a former public school principal, said
allowing for suspicionless searches would "give (principals) the tools
to be able to deal with the small group that are causing the problems."

Whitney White, owner of Interquest Detection Canines of Hawaii, ran a
six-month drug-sniffing dog pilot project in 2007 at three Maui
schools. She used a specially trained dog to detect alcohol, drugs and
guns on campus. She said the state could face legal consequences for
not allowing drug-sniffing dogs in schools.

"When and if a tragedy occurs relating to drugs, alcohol or gunpowder
related items, the state could be sued for disallowing a proven
program that could have prevented the tragedy," she said.

Katherine Irwin, associate professor of sociology at the University of
Hawai'i-Manoa, said research has shown the drug-sniffing dogs fail to
detect drugs about 30 percent of the time.

Irwin also said groups such as the NAACP and Rainbow Push Coalition
have challenged such programs on the Mainland on the grounds that
"these mandatory disciplinary policies and drug policing strategies
are pushing large numbers of African American, Latino and Pacific
Islander students out of school."

Jeanne Ohta, director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, suggested
that the board put money into programs that prevent drug abuse rather
than spending money on a drug sniffing dog program.

"It sounds like ... drug-sniffing dogs are going to help the drug
problem, but it really doesn't help. ... It doesn't address usage, it
doesn't decrease usage. Isn't that the end result of what we want?"
Ohta said.