SCHOOLS HOPE DOGS SNIFF BUT FIND NOTHING

Two Hueneme Campuses Will Get Regular Contraband Checks

The most marijuana Steven Essler's drug-sniffing dogs ever found at a
school was a three-pound stash inside a backpack.

But his Labrador retrievers have also sniffed out LSD, cocaine and
opium -- all within walls of a school.

Essler's dogs detected guns in classrooms. They once found a station
wagon outside a school loaded with 17 bottles of whiskey and a keg of
beer -- stopping a party teenagers planned for a Friday night.

But when Essler, president and CEO of Modesto-based Kontraband
Interdiction and Detection Services (KIDS), brings dogs for random
visits at E.O. Green and Charles Blackstock schools in the Hueneme
Elementary District, he hopes to find nothing at all.

The school board signed a one-year contract with KIDS last spring.
Once school resumes Aug. 31, two dogs and their handlers will visit
the grades 6-8 schools unannounced, sniffing for illegal drugs,
weapons and alcohol. The contract covers 20 bi-monthly visits for
about $3,500.

The sniff-searches, school board member Ralph Ramos said, are an
attempt to make campuses safer and free of dangerous, deadly objects.

"The service KIDS is providing sends a message that if you bring that
stuff on campus, it will be detected," he said. "Hopefully, the dogs
don't find anything. But if they do, there will be
consequences."

Last school year, the district that educates over 8,000 K-8 students,
expelled 15 of them. Twelve expulsions were for marijuana. One was for
possession of a weapon, while the remaining two students were kicked
out for fights.

The district learned about the company at a California School Boards
Association conference. Before approving a contract, Essler and a
canine companion visited a board meeting to demonstrate the program.
The board watched a dog locate a bullet, an airline-sized bottle of
whiskey and a speck of marijuana that were hidden throughout the
meeting room.

The company was conceived in 1997, and Essler, its president, said
about half its 200 clients are schools. A campus visit spans a few
hours. But students who are asked to leave a room so dogs can sniff
are displaced only about 5 minutes.

On campus, Essler said, canines sniff lockers, restrooms and
classrooms. A dog alerts a trainer it has found something by barking
or wagging its tail. Even then, KIDS employees are not law
enforcement. They have no authority to arrest, he said, and searching
items such as backpacks can be done only with permission.

If a dog detects a scent, a student is asked privately, in the
presence of a school administrator, for permission to look inside. If
a student refuses, the issue is handed to administrators, who can call
parents for permission to search.

However, Essler pointed out, a picked-up scent does not lead to
automatic guilt. A backpack, for instance, may smell like marijuana if
it was in a room where the drug was smoked. If a search turns up
nothing, a student is simply sent back to class.

"The concept of our program is not to catch. It's to deter," he said.
"In a K-8 school, the biggest thing we can provide is a deterrent. ..
This is a place of education. They have a right to attend a safe campus."

If a student is found with weapons or drugs, said district
Superintendent Gerald Dannenberg, it triggers an expulsion process.

The district plans to educate students and parents about the service
by holding an assembly. Kids will be introduced to a dog, then warned
it can show up at any time.

Systems like William S. Hart Union High School District in Santa
Clarita have used KIDS for five years.

Mike vonBuelow, assistant superintendent of the grades 7-12 school
system, said staff surveys indicate the program is working. He said
students whose backpacks are targeted usually confess before
consenting to a search. He said the number of students has grown in
recent years, but drug, alcohol and weapons incidents have not.

"It has not been surrounded by controversy," he said.

"The principals and staff feel it is an effective deterrent."