POLICY KEEPS DOG SEARCH PROVISION

Two years after results of a youth-behavior survey showed that many high
school students were being offered or sold illegal drugs on campus, the
Groton Dunstable Regional School Committee is expected to approve a new
antidrug policy Wednesday. The new policy, a hotly debated topic among
parents, students, and administrators for the last year, has seen few
revisions since the seven-member committee conducted policy readings in
January.

The policy's most controversial provision, which allows drug searches
by police dogs in the school district, remains, despite the objections
of numerous parents, organizations, and students during the recent
public hearings, some of which were well attended. Although the
proposed policy doesn't mandate that the searches occur, it does make
it clear that the district's administration may use them at its
discretion. The policy also requires the superintendent to work with
school administrators to revamp the district's drug-free policy every
three years, if they decide it is needed.

The School Committee on Wednesday will hold the third and final
hearing on the policy and plans to vote immediately after closing the
session. The hearing, also known as a policy reading, is scheduled to
begin between 7:30 and 8 p.m. at the high school library.

School Committee chairman Alan Vervaeke said that despite differing
opinions, the committee believes the policy is the one best suited to
combat drug use among students.

''We want to make sure administrators have every tool at their
disposal," he said. ''Whether they decide to use that tool [canine
searches], that's up to them." The policy has numerous critics,
however, many of whom showed up at the recent hearing to voice their
dissent.

Parent Chris Mills, a former School Committee chairman, said the
canine searches are a negative approach.

Mills was also a member of a youth organization, the Groton Dunstable
Alliance for Youth, which has spoken out vigorously against the policy
of dog searches.

''There's been a wealth of scientific research that has been done,
showing there are far more effective techniques" such as education,
which help lower drug use, Mills said. ''These techniques help
[students] to feel safe, welcome, and involved in their environment.
The unannounced canine searches flies in the face of that."

Vervaeke said canine searches are only one small part of the
policy.

The policy also promotes many constructive steps, he said, such as
increased education, community partnerships between the schools and
local groups, and early-intervention measures.

Like most of the committee's policies, the drug policy is broad-based
and doesn't lay out specifics.

The superintendent and other school administrators, he said, will have
the job of ironing out all the details. Drug policy has been a
controversial topic at the schools since 2002, when results of a
survey on risky behavior by youths showed a dramatic increase in the
number of high school students saying they had been offered or sold
drugs on campus. In 2000, 35 percent of students who responded to the
survey said they had been offered or purchased drugs on campus within
the last 12 months.

When that number climbed to 45 percent in 2002, it was an impetus for
school officials to take action, said Vervaeke.

In 2003, the School Committee established an office at the high school
for a police officer and authorized an unannounced canine search at
the school.

The search found no drugs, but did discover traces of marijuana in one
student's car. Since then, under political pressure, the
administration has not conducted searches, and the latest survey
results, released in January, show a decline in drugs on school
property, as well as a decline in drug use in general, among high
school students.

Twenty-seven percent of those surveyed in 2004 said they had been
offered or purchased drugs on campus within the last 12 months. If the
new policy is approved, Superintendent Mary Athey Jennings said she
would seek to balance students' rights to privacy with the district's
need for a drug-free campus.

Canine searches are a ''serious level of intervention" that won't be
pursued unless she or other administrators see the need for it, she
said. That decision would be based ''on objective data, not emotions,"
Jennings said. ''The administration has not chosen to do that, but
reserves the right to do that," she said. ''If we reached a point
where trust and cooperation with students was breached, then we would
look into" canine searches. Mills said he agrees with the new policy
except for canine searches, and said he was glad that dog searches
won't be mandated.

But he is concerned that the policy leaves room for interpretation. A
new superintendent, who is slated to come in next year, may interpret
the policy as a suggestion to have dog searches. ''This could have
negative repercussions going forward," he said.