IN CANTON, PARENTS APPEAL DISMISSAL OF SCHOOL DRUG-SWEEP CASE

CANTON -- - Parents are appealing a decision by a state Superior
Court judge who dismissed a civil action they brought against the
board of education after a 2008 drug sweep at Canton middle and high
schools.

The plaintiffs -- Harold Burbank, Marianne Burbank and Jane Latus --
contended that the unannounced, "suspicionless" sweep June 5, 2008,
was unconstitutional, and they sought a court order requiring that
parents be notified at least 48 hours before school officials and
police conducted future K-9 sweeps.

Harold Burbank, acting as the parents' attorney, argued in part that
the school board's policy permitting the searches not only harms
students, but also interferes with the parents' right to control the
upbringing of their children. The action was filed in late March.

In an 18-page decision last month, Judge Eliot Prescott said that the
plaintiffs offered little evidence to support their claims and that
extensive case law allows the sweeps.

"If school officials failed to provide a school environment that is
reasonably free from drugs and contraband," Prescott added, "other
parents would undoubtedly argue that its failure to do so was
negatively impacting their attempts to raise their children in a safe
and appropriate manner."

The plaintiffs are now appealing the decision to the state Appellate
Court.

In the sweep, ordered by Superintendent Kevin Case, police used
drug-sniffing dogs to alert them to lockers and cars in the school
parking lot that might hold illegal substances.

One 17-year-old, the senior class president at the time, was arrested
on a misdemeanor possession charge after police searched her Jeep and
found "a stem or seed of marijuana," according to court documents.
She also received a 10-day school suspension.