DRUG-SNIFFING SCHOOL DOGS RAISING A STINK

Human Rights Issue Raised As More High Schools Employ Such Strategy

They almost never find any contraband, but drug-sniffing dogs are
likely to remain a reality in a number of southern Alberta's rural
schools for the deterrent effect they seem to have.

Discussion flared up across western Canada this week over the human
rights aspect of drug-dog searches, after news broke that a school
board in B.C.'s Fraser Valley has drafted a policy to allow them in
their schools. Three rural schools near Winnipeg made headlines during
the week as well, when they reported hiring a drug-sniffing dog to sus
out their students' lockers, and Grande Prairie schools are using
police dogs.

In Alberta, there are two ways to conduct locker searches with dogs --
by using RCMP canine sniffers or hiring private companies. Many
schools around the south have opted for one choice or the another,
except public and Catholic schools in Lethbridge, which have opted
against the practice. If dope is found in a locker search, it's up to
the prinicipal whether it's dealt with internally or through criminal
charges.

Murray Armstrong owns High West Canine Services based in Fort Macleod,
a company many schools south of Calgary have been hiring.

"We generally use them a couple of times a year," said Todd Ojala,
principal at Vauxhall High School. "And we've had assemblies where the
dogs come in and we show the students how they work. They'll hide
something somewhere in the gym and then the dog will find it."

With their amazing senses of smell and hearing, dogs can be trained to
detect drugs and bombs, predict seizures and storms and even sniff out
cancer cells in urine samples. In a school situation, dogs are
non-threatening and don't show bias.

Vauxhall students are told at the start of the school year that they
can expect the dogs to show up on occasion. When they do, a lockdown
procedure is followed while Ojala accompanies the handler and the dog
through the halls. The animal is trained to sit down when it picks up
the scent of something suspicious. At that point, the principal
decides whether or not the student should be present when the locker
is searched. Almost always, they are.

"The lockers are school property, and the students know that, but
what's inside belongs to them and I think they should be there if
we're going to open it up," Ojala says. "We haven't actually found
drugs. But the dog will sometimes smell something and sit down."

Some people refer to that as a "false positive," but Ojala and
Armstrong say if the dog "indicates" even though no drugs are found,
it's usually because the aroma lingers on clothing and other
possessions. Max, Armstrong's black lab, is also used at schools in
Taber, Milk River, Claresholm, Fort Macleod and in other communities.
He can detect even minute amounts of heroin, cocaine, marijuana,
methamphetamines and magic mushrooms.

"Our dogs have 85 to 90 per cent efficiency on any given day,"
Armstrong says. "And most of the time I think if something is missed
it's because I miss a cue from the dog. He may indicate with a head
movement, so I have to watch him very closely. It's more preventative
than anything, because kids don't usually keep it in their lockers."

Lethbridge RCMP Corp. Grant Hignell and his German shepherd Zigro are
often called out to other area schools. They only go on requested by
the school and only if they're available.

"Policy has to be set by the school and the school district, a clear
policy of zero tolerance for narcotics in the school or on school
property," Hignell says. "It has to be clearly articulated to students
and I generally ask that the schools tell the parents, too. Many
schools have posters in the classrooms and hallways, and the students
are told they should have no reasonable expectation of privacy."

Hignell said when Zigro indicates at a school, he and the dog then
leave.

"It's dealt with at the principal's discretion."