JOHN STARK MAY HIRE DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

Lockers, Backpacks Would Be Searched

WEARE - Officials at John Stark Regional High School are considering
using dogs to search students' lockers and backpacks for drugs.

Principal Art Aaronson sent letters home to parents last week asking
for feedback on the proposal. If the plan is approved, the school
would work with the Weare police to bring dogs into the school. The
dogs would not search students directly, but they would check the
lockers and students' backpacks, which would be left in the hallway
during inspection. The school board is still reviewing the idea, and
John Stark officials are working out the cost of the plan.

School officials say this is the next step in a series of initiatives
taken over the past five years to make John Stark a drug-free school.
A survey conducted about three years ago found that when students
were asked what they would like to change about John Stark, 34
percent of those who responded said they wanted the school to be
drug- and alcohol-free, said Assistant Principal Michael Turmelle.

The school has stiffened penalties for students who bring drugs to
school or come to school under the influence. First-time offenders
are suspended for 20 days and sent to drug counseling. A student
caught twice or a student who is selling drugs at school could face
expulsion, Turmelle said.

The school has also used a school resource officer, a police officer
dedicated to the school full time, for the past three years. The
officer, Bob Peterson of the Weare police, recently finished a drug
recognition course that enables him to identify drugs and recognize
and differentiate the physical effects different drugs can have on a
person who has taken them.

Turmelle said the school typically has only four or five cases per
year in which a student is caught with drugs or is found intoxicated
in school. Last year, one student who was caught twice was suspended
for a month and 20 days until a drug and alcohol counselor was
satisfied with the student's treatment. The student returned to
school this year, Turmell said.

But administrators aren't sure if they're missing drug- and
alcohol-related problems. The dogs could sniff out drugs that school
officials don't see, Turmelle said.

"We don't have great statistics on whether there are drugs in the
school," he said. "We recognize that we have young people here, and
it's possible to think there are drugs here."

Several other high schools, including Hillsboro-Deering, Belmont,
Sunapee and Kearsarge, have used the dogs. Dogs are not used at
Hopkinton, Bow or Concord high schools, although a dog has been used
to investigate a bomb threat called in to Concord High.

Dogs have been brought in once a year for two years to check the
lockers at Kearsarge Regional High School. The school typically
disciplines about a dozen students each year for drug and alcohol
offenses, said Principal Carl Fitzgerald. Although the dogs have
never found any drugs, school officials think the process is a good deterrent.

"Schools are a logical place for kids to exchange things because
they're all here," said Fitzgerald. "We've caught kids in the past
with marijuana or pills on them. . . . The dogs are another way."

At Kearsarge, the inspection takes place during an emergency
management drill when students are told to stay in the classrooms,
Fitzgerald said. It takes one dog about an hour to sweep the school.
Using two dogs not only saves time, but it can prevent the dogs from
getting burned out or hungry. Last year, a dog pounced on a backpack,
but administrators found only a bologna sandwich inside, Fitzgerald said.

Several Kearsarge students interviewed last week said they don't mind
the dogs, but they aren't thrilled about the time it takes to search
the lockers.

"I think it could be disruptive because it would stop classes," said
Hannah Clarke, 17, a senior. If someone's using drugs, she said,
"that person should just be approached. That might be more effective
than just bringing the dogs in and locking kids in the classroom and
stuff like that."

Bradley Cote, 18, a senior, said he doesn't have any problem with the
dogs, and he thinks the searches have deterred some students from
brining drugs to school.

"I know that there were kids freaking out because they didn't know if
they had their stuff in their lockers or not," he said.

"They've really smartened up,"he said, adding, "They realized that
it's not worth the risk."

Claire Ebel, executive director of the New Hampshire Civil Liberties
Union, said as long as dogs search the lockers and not the students,
the school probably won't interfere with the students' constitutional
rights. But she still has reservations about using dogs.

"These are not penal institutions," she said. "These are schools."

Ebel said schools should use the dogs only if they are having a
serious problem with drugs and other solutions aren't working.
Ideally, school officials should find a way to help students to quit
using drugs, she said.

"Drug use by young people is a societal problem," she said.
"Terrifying young people with dogs and perhaps turning over evidence
to the police . . . how does that help them?"

John Stark officials have not yet said how they would involve the
police. At Kearsarge, school officials handle drug-related offenses
administratively, suspending students and sending them for
counseling, Fitzgerald said. But Hopkinton Police Chief David Wheeler
said that if the police bring a dog to search a school and drugs are
found, the student would be arrested.

Since lockers are school property, school officials can look in
lockers without any reason for the search, Fitzgerald said. But the
police must have a search warrant, even if a dog catches a scent in a
locker or a backpack. If the police obtain a search warrant for a
student's locker and find drugs, the school is no longer in charge of
dealing with the student, Wheeler said.

"It's really not up to the school,"Wheeler said. "Any public
building, we can go in and search."

Weare Police Chief Greg Begin said Officer Peterson would not be
handling the dog, and he believes the school may use a dog and a
handler used at Sunapee Middle High School. Sunapee Principal Sean
Moynihan did not return a call for comment last week. Begin said he
doesn't know how John Stark officials want to handle the locker
searches if the plan is approved.

Turmelle said the school is still working out the details of the
plan, which was presented to the school board last month. The board
asked Aaronson to seek feedback from parents and to further research
the plan. The plan will be presented to the school board in the
coming weeks, Turmelle said.