NO HITS, BUT DRUG USE STILL A CONCERN

A police search of the halls and parking lots at Twin Lakes High
School turned up nothing Wednesday. And that's a good thing say both
police and school administrators of the random sweep for drugs.

"I look at it as a positive," said Monticello Police Chief Jim
Reynolds, whose department partnered with law enforcement agencies
from White, Carroll and Cass counties to perform the searches. "At
least they're not bringing it to school, as far as we can tell."

The entire process took about an hour, and although searches
sometimes include nearby Roosevelt Middle School, Wednesday's sweep
did not.

"We had seven or eight alerts," said Reynolds. "The dog's 'hit' on
cars but we didn't find any physical evidence to validate it."

A search inside the building turned out the same.

"We searched probably 10 lockers, with the same results," said
Reynolds. "We found nothing."

For indoor searches the specially trained dogs are led past each
locker and if an animal indicates on any one of the doors, he said,
adjacent lockers are searched as well.

"We'll go one or two lockers on either side of it, also - just look
in them. (Scent) travels since there are vent holes in the lockers.
So, the locker it hits on is not necessarily the one that could have
had something in there."

For the past several years, the Monticello Police Department has
partnered with administrators at Twin Lakes School Corporation to
keep the searches random.

"The reason I think it's successful is that each time we do it there
are fewer hits on lockers and cars," said Reynolds. "That means if
they're doing it, at least they're not bringing it to school."

Principal Keith Brakel said he's pleased with the results of
Wednesday's search but said he's concerned about the alerts
themselves, which could indicate some students or their belongings
are in close enough proximity to illicit drugs to alert the dogs.

"We're always pleased when we don't find anything," said Brakel. "But
we are concerned when the dogs do hit because we're still getting too
many alerts in the building. It's telling us that some students are
at least around drugs."

Superintendent Dr. Tom Fletcher said he believes it's important to
view the searches in context.

"It is just another tool that we're trying to use to help kids stay
off of drugs. And hopefully, it's working," he said. "At least the
message is clear that we're not going to tolerate it in schools."