WAG THE DEBATE: DISTRICT RECONSIDERS CONTRABAND-SNIFFING DOGS

Even wrapped in plastic, folded in a towel and stuffed in a duffel bag, a
can of Budweiser won't escape the nose of Bo, a contraband-sniffing dog.

That uncanny ability to search out contraband -- drugs, gunpowder and
alcohol -- may soon make him a force to be reckoned with at Longview schools.

After wrestling with the issue for the last two years, the Longview School
Board has resurrected the topic of drug-sniffing dogs following a recent
presentation from a private company, Interquest Detection Canines, that
provides the animals.

On Monday, the board is inviting the public to share comments about the
prospect. Some of the issues the district would like the public to consider
include whether the visits would discourage contraband on campus and also
which areas the dogs would patrol, such as classrooms, hallways and parking
lots.

If the feedback is favorable, the board may appoint a committee to craft a
policy as early as this fall.

A full-day, monthly visit from a contraband dog would cost about $10,000
per school year, according to the district.

In the past, the district has shied away from employing drug-sniffing dogs
because of constitutional questions of individual rights and
search-and-seizure laws. By using a private company rather than law
enforcement-provided dogs, district officials said they hope to skirt those
legal snags.

In schools where contraband canines are used, administrators laud its
deterrent effect: The dogs arrive at random times, prompting students to
leave hot items at home. On the other hand, opponents argue that the action
is intrusive and breeds mistrust.

Perks of a private company

In August 2002, a task force on youth violence advised Longview schools to
begin using drug-sniffing dogs. The discussion stalled, however, because of
questions of search-and-seizure laws and individual rights.

The district has reopened the issue after some school board members viewed
a presentation in November from the Los Angeles-based Interquest Detection
Canines at the Washington State School Directors Association annual meeting.

The advantage to using a private company, according to Interquest, is that
it avoids legal pitfalls and also broadens the number of substances the
dogs are capable of sniffing.

"This particular dog (from Interquest) mitigates some of the concerns that
the previous use of a dog raised," said Mark Rosin, Longview district's
deputy superintendent.

The Supreme Court has upheld lower courts' rulings that drug dogs are
permissible in schools as long as they sniff lockers and students'
belongings but not individual students.

The hang-up with using a law enforcement dog is that police must operate
under a policy of probable cause, which means they can't open a student
locker without a search warrant even if the dog "alerts."

However, under state law, if school administrators suspect they will find
drugs, they can search a student's locker or backpack. A private contraband
canine company, if employed by the district, works under the same policy of
reasonable suspicion as the district to search a student's belongings, said
Dale Hendrickson, the president of Interquest Detection Canines for
Southwest Washington.

Civil rights groups, however, say that using dogs creates an atmosphere of
mistrust.

"There are definitely problems with students being treated as suspects when
in fact they haven't done anything wrong," said Doug Honig, spokesman for
Washington's American Civil Liberties Union.

"If something is legally problematic, suddenly having a private company do
it is OK? ... Is it legal or is it a PR concern?"

Sue Baur, the county's prosecuting attorney, said this week that she
advises using a police drug dog that's off duty -- or better yet, a private
company.

"I would think they would want to stay out of even a hint of governmental
involvement," Baur said.

Interquest said it uses more friendly breeds of dogs, such as Labradors,
who are trained to sit down --- called an alert --- if the animal detects
drinking alcohol, illegal drugs, medications or gunpowder materials. Law
enforcement dogs are usually more aggressive and are trained to scratch or
claw if drugs are found, according to Interquest.

The drugs Interquest canines can detect include marijuana, heroin, cocaine,
and methamphetamine. The dogs also alert on prescription medication and
alcohol, even if it's in a sealed container, according to Interquest.

Even if the item in question has been removed, the dog may detect a
"residual odor" hours or even days and weeks later, Hendrickson said.

All of Hendrickson's nearly 30 school-district clients allow him to search
in school parking lots.

"Virtually every school that we serve that has students old enough to drive
asks us to check student vehicles," Hendrickson said. "The two areas where
we most frequently find items is in vehicles and personal items that
students carry with them --- purses, backpacks, jackets."

At Mabton High School, in Mabton, located in south-central Washington,
Interquest patrols about once a month during the school year. During a
regular visit, contraband-sniffing dog Bo found an empty .22 caliber shell
behind the seat of a student's car, Principal Keith Morris said.

The student told school officials that he and his father recently had been
rabbit hunting, Morris said in an interview this week.

Serving as a deterrent

In part, the discussion of using dogs has grown out of the community's
continued battle with drugs, school officials say, even though the number
of incidents at the schools isn't escalating.

"This community has a drug problem," Rosin said. "The school is a component
of the community. We're no different. We're a piece of where we live."

In the last school year, the district has recorded one occasion of a
firearm at a high school and 11 incidents of weapons at the middle and high
schools. Those could include a pocketknife forgotten in a backpack, Rosin
said. The district logged 52 incidents of drugs between the middle and high
schools.

School officials stress, however, that using drug dogs is only a piece in a
multifaceted drug program.

"It's not the wonder thing, it's not the end-all, be-all. It's a tool we
use, and we've found it to be effective," said Pete Peterson, the assistant
principal of Pasco High School in the Tri-Cities area. Interquest Detection
Canines visits the school several times a year, he said.

Hendrickson said by using contraband canines, the number of incidents will
drop, as much as by half in a school year. But the dramatic difference may
not be on the surface, he said.

"We really see our purpose, our biggest purpose, is to provide a reason not
to bring contraband to school," Hendrickson told the Longview board at a
recent meeting.

"That to me is a good visit to the school -- when we don't find anything,"
Hendrickson told The Daily News.

At Pasco High School, school officials say the anecdotal evidence of the
program's success is stronger than the statistics.

"We think it's effective because what students tell us," Peterson said.
"Students know if they bring contraband to school, there's a chance that
the dog's going to come. Students just ask themselves, 'Is it worth the
risk?' "

Morris, the principal at Mabton High School, said his district introduced
the idea as a way to provide "a safe learning environment." He said using
the dogs shouldn't be portrayed as a crackdown "to catch the kids."

"The kids understand we're doing it for their good," he said. "It's not
about 'gotcha.' "

Opponents of drug dogs, however, refute that.

Even at schools not weighed down by a drug problem, Hogel said he's heard
students complain of feeling as though they're trapped in "jail."

"Heavy-handed policies that treat whole groups of students as suspects have
less credibility when there's not a big problem," said Honig of the ACLU.
"It makes them feel that they're being treated like some sort of prisoners."

For example, Hogel recalled a recent incident in a Seattle school where
drug dogs alerted on two lockers.

Inside? Day-old pizza.

Other area schools

Here's what the other school districts in Cowlitz County are doing:

Kelso: Law enforcement dogs have been used in the past, but not recently
because of the availability of a dog, Superintendent Glenys Hill said. She
added that the board and administration haven't addressed hiring a private
company that provides dogs at this point, but she would be willing to
explore the possibility.

"It was very effective of sending a strict message to kids," she said.

Castle Rock: Drug dogs are not currently used, "partly because we have the
perception, right or wrong, the exchange of drugs aren't taking place at
school," Superintendent Rick Wilde said.

Students are more likely to make exchanges outside of school because of
Castle Rock's rural location, he said. But "if you ever have the perception
that exchanges take place, you need to do everything --- including dogs ---
to deter it from being in the school setting," Wilde said.

Kalama: Through a public-agency cooperation, drug dogs are used on an
irregular, "as-needed" basis, Superintendent Jim Sutton said. In the past
seven years, Sutton recalls using the dogs on about three occasions. The
dogs don't patrol in parking lots.

"It's always controversial having dogs, some people think you're
overstepping your bounds and other people applaud it," he said.

Woodland: Drug dogs currently aren't used. After the Longview district
questioned its legality two years ago, the district dropped the use of drug
dogs, Superintendent Bill Hundley said.

Hundley said that the Woodland district is watching Longview's decision
closely.

"We all knew Longview was going through this, and I, for one, was sitting
on the sidelines waiting to see what happens," he said.

Toutle Lake: Similar to Kelso, law enforcement dogs have been used in the
past, but not recently because of the availability of the dog,
Superintendent Scott Grabenhorst said. When the district did employ a dog,
it was used on a yearly basis "on and off," he said.

"We're just looking at various options" to replace the dog, but there isn't
a "particular company that we have specifically looked at," Grabenhorst said.

"We'll be very interested in someone available to us in the coming school year."