ACADEMY K-9 POLICY SUPPORTED, SO FAR

MANCHESTER -- Reaction to a new policy that sanctions K-9 patrols of
school grounds to deter drug use has been largely positive, officials
at Burr and Burton Academy say.

Headmaster Charles W. Scranton said there has been overwhelming
support for the patrols despite the potentially controversial step
taken by the school last month to authorize police dog searches for
illegal drugs and related paraphernalia.

"We expected there would be people that would question the
rationale," he said. "Like any other policy we might look at it again
six months down the road and see what adjustments might be necessary,
but for now we're going ahead."

At a public forum held at the school Feb. 8, questions were raised by
some of the nearly 200 people who attended about the need for the new
policy and the way it was developed. But they were outnumbered by
those who thought the measure sent a message to both students and
the community that the school was serious about cracking down on
illicit drug and alcohol use.

"Just the acknowledgement that there is a problem is important," said
Phyllis Tarbell, the executive director of the Dorset Nursing
Association. "When people don't acknowledge there's a problem it
supports that happening again."

But while dissenting voices are in the minority for the moment, the
support is not unanimous.

Bradley Myerson, a local attorney, says school officials developed
and adopted the new policy behind closed doors without hard evidence
to support such a radical change.

"I don't think they needed the dog sniff policy," he said. "If the
administration knows who is dealing or using drugs at school, they
can take appropriate steps."

Burr and Burton -- an independent high school that enrolls about 700
students -- can suspend a student for at 10 days for a first
violation of its "zero tolerance" drug policy. A second violation can
merit expulsion, according to school policies.

So far, one student has been expelled and six suspended, Myerson
said.

But that doesn't mean the school doesn't have a substance abuse
problem, Scranton said. In the 2005 Vermont Youth Risk Behavior
Survey, Burr and Burton's students reported using illicit drugs and
alcohol at or above the rates consumed by students around the state.

Approximately 24 percent of BBA students reported consuming five or
more alcoholic drinks within a couple of hours, compared to the
statewide results of 21 percent. About 44 percent of BBA students
said they had tried marijuana at least once, compared to 37 percent
of high school students statewide, according to the 2005 data.

While the new K-9 policy is designed to search randomly selected
areas of the campus, and not students directly, there is no guarantee
that students might never be the target of a dog patrol, and that
gets into a delicate legal area, he said.

"Under the U.S. Constitution a dog sniff is not a search, but under
the Vermont state constitution it could be," he said. "If a kid is
arrested or charged as a result of a dog sniff, that could be the
forum for challenging the dog sniff."

Before announcing the K-9 policy, BBA sought a legal opinion from
Rutland attorney William Meub, who concluded the school was well
within its legal authority to conduct K-9 patrols on its campus.

There is not a lot of legal precedent in Vermont on what constitutes
an unreasonable search. But Meub says privacy rights at a school
aren't the same as they are at home.

The K-9 patrol is not targeted at specific individuals, he said.

"As long as it's random, it's proper and not unreasonable," he said.
"The way it's laid out we don't think it's a problem."

Public schools are also well within their rights to use dogs as part
of an anti-drug campaign, and school officials in Bennington
considered K-9 patrols in 2003, said Wesley Knapp, the Superintendent
of the Southwest Vermont Supervisory Union, which includes Mt.
Anthony Union High School. So far they haven't, he said.

"There are no laws or regulations that would prevent that," Knapp
said.

But the policy still strikes others as an overreaction. Phyllis
Kaplan, a parent of a BBA freshman, said it seemed at little "heavy
handed."

Kaplan praised the school for communicating well with parents and the
community, but she said she hoped the debate over the policy isn't
over.

"I hope the administration and the trustees revisit the policy to see
if their objectives have been met within six months or a year, and if
not, re-open the discussion."