K-9 SWEEPS: 'ARE OUR KIDS REALLY IN SUCH DANGER?'

I really think the school lockdown and K-9 sweeps at our Northshore
School District junior highs in October was overkill. Are we trying to
indoctrinate our students to accept having their civil liberties
tested, if not violated (I know that there have been conflicting
rulings in the courts regarding "suspicion-less sniffs")? I must say
as a professional who has worked at First Security Bank, IBM,
Washington Mutual, JP Morgan Chase and Microsoft, we have NEVER had
our areas swept by K-9 units (and this would be allowed since these
are private, not government institutions, as are the public schools).

Are our kids really in such danger? What are we keeping them safe
from? Maybe they would be safer if they weren't at a school that used
such heavy handed tactics. Will we have urine tests next? Full body
scanners like they do at the airports? (I'm sure those would find the
drugs and other illegal paraphernalia.) What about students whose
parents have cancer and take medical cannabis so they can eat - do you
suppose the dogs will smell that on the kids' jackets in their lockers?

For more than four decades, Gallup has asked Americans if marijuana
should be legalized. Recently, Gallup published its latest findings,
with 50 percent of Americans approving of legalization and 46 percent
disapproving.

As a concerned parent of three Northshore School District students in
elementary, junior high and high school, I am against these measures.
I am glad you take school safety and zero-use policy seriously, but I
am all for honoring our Constitution and the Fourth Amendment - thus
maybe we should spend more time teaching about the Fourth Amendment,
not contradicting it.

Tolli Lowell-Forker

Bothell