SCHOOL BOARD IN DOG HOUSE

Faced with threats of lawsuits, a recall election and the passionate
denunciation of two leading civil-rights groups, trustees of the
Sausalito Marin City School District voted Monday night to suspend a
policy calling for drug-sniffing dogs at Martin Luther King Jr. Academy.

The board voted unanimously to suspend the policy for two months,
during which time the policy, as well as alternatives, would be
reviewed by parents, educators and civil-rights groups.

The board in November unanimously authorized the use of dogs at the
Marin City middle school, which has 38 seventh- and eighth-graders.
It was not until January, however, that parents were informed of the
program, along with a notice that, in three days, dogs would be on campus.

On Jan. 23, the dogs were brought into MLK to meet the students. No
inspections were performed and none have been since.

At Monday night's public hearing, attended by about 200 people at
Bayside School in Sausalito, trustees were attacked repeatedly and
heatedly by parents and students from Marin City as well as students
and others from throughout Marin.

Terri Harris-Green, an MLK parent and a member of the Marin City
Community Services District board, said, "I am outraged by your
blatant disrespect of your parents. You know dogs are not the
answer. They will only add to the traumatization of the children."

After calling for the policy to be rescinded, she added: "I am so
disappointed I don't know what to do. I don't know what we have to do
to get your attention. Is it going to take us recalling you as a
board? What is it going to take?"

Juniper Lesnik, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union's
Northern California office in San Francisco, told the trustees, "This
policy violates the constitutional rights of King Academy students
and it is simply bad policy."

The ACLU has charged the program has violated the students'
constitutional protection against illegal search and seizure.

The board's attorney said the policy was constitutional because no
student would be "randomly" sniffed by the dogs.

Under the program, Interquest Detection Canines of Houston would
perform monthly inspections at a cost of $2,500 at the middle school.
Students would leave their classrooms and dogs would then sniff the
classrooms in other parts of the school for evidence of drugs.

Originally, parents understood that children's personal belongings
would be subject to inspections, but it remained unclear at the
meeting just what in particular would be sniffed.

Dan Daniels, statewide director of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, said the "legality of the program will
be taken up at another time," heavily implying a possible lawsuit.

"What now is being questioned is an ethical question," he said. "How
do you justify dogs when there is no evidence of drugs?"

The trustees have repeatedly said they have no evidence of drugs at
MLK but wanted the program to reassure themselves and the community
that the school was drug-free.

Trustee Whitney Hoyt apologized to the audience for voting for a
policy she hadn't examined. She said it had been included as part of
a larger item on school safety.

"I can't remember ever having a discussion about it," she said. "I
regret that I didn't read the policy at the time. That was my mistake."