DRUGS IN SCHOOLS GOING TO THE DOGS

Some say program highlights failures of parents and educators

Using drug-sniffer dogs to randomly search student lockers at
Abbotsford schools is a violation of Charter privacy rights and is
illegal, according to David Eby, the executive director of the B.C.
Civil Liberties Association.

"They don't need a warrant . . . but they still need reasonable
grounds to believe the students have broken school rules, because the
school is still government and the students are still citizens," he said.

Eby suggested the policy also shows an appalling lack of respect to
children, and highlights the failure of the Abbotsford School
District and parents to properly educate children about the dangers
of drug use.

If the only responsibility of the Abbotsford school board with
respect to students was eliminating potential liability issues around
the school, that would be one thing, but their job is actually education."

An adjunct professor of law at the University of British Columbia,
Eby said all the drug-sniffing dogs in the world won't prevent kids
doing drugs.

"In terms of combating drugs in schools, the most effective technique
is going to be education, because as soon as they leave the school
grounds . . . they are going to be exposed to drugs and the
opportunity to use and purchase drugs."

When asked if any drugs have been found in Abbotsford schools using
the dogs, Abbotsford Board of Education chair Cindy Schafer was
unsure and said measuring the effectiveness of a policy of this type
is problematic at best.

"Our goal is we want to keep schools safe, to measure whether or not
that's been effective yet, I don't know how we could measure that," she said.

With budget concerns, cutbacks and possible school closures looming
over many school districts, Schafer said the price for implementing
the policy is negligible.

"This year the cost was $6,500," she said, "In a district of our
size, the cost is minimal."

Vancouver School Board communications manager David Weir said the VSB
has never employed sniffer dogs, and has no plans on implementing
them, rather, schools employ VPD officers as liaisons who are a
regular hallway presence.

"We do not use [dogs] in our schools, and we are not aware of any
conversations or requests for us to consider using them," he said.

Margrett Donley is the owner of Canadian K9 Detection Security &
Investigations Ltd., a Vancouver company contracted by the Abbotsford
Board of Education to perform the drug sweeps.

Donley said searches of this type are proactive, and the dogs are
more than 90 per cent accurate.

"This is not searching for criminals, that's not what this is about.

"This is about protecting our children," Donley said.

Parents and students like the idea of being protected, said Donley,
regardless if the criminals do, in fact, turn out to be children and youth.

"There is not a child I have met in my life - that goes out to be a
drug dealer or a drug mule - that decides one day that that is what
they are going to do.

"They're influenced to do it," she said.

Eby thinks the tactics go too far.

"I don't know what stage we've gotten to, where we are using
drug-sniffing dogs on our own children.

"It's a failure of drug policy and a failure of drug education among
youth," he said.

In matters of safety, school authorities must be afforded a broad
measure of discretion, Sgt. Mike Novakowski with the Abbotsford police said.

"Schools are a microcosm of a community. What happens in homes and on
streets will, at some level, find its way into our schools.

"The use of drug sniffer dogs is one tool to assist school
authorities in ferreting out [drugs]," Novakowski said.

Schafer said the school board has received no feedback on the policy
from parents or students.

"We actually haven't heard anything."

The board did due diligence in implementing the policy, Schafer said.

"You can't deny, that in our community there are some things that
have been problematic. Drugs is one of them, and gangs.

"We just want the message to get out there that we do not want the
sharing and trafficking of drugs at school."