DOGS ONCE AGAIN SET TO SEARCH HIGH SCHOOLS FOR DRUGS, WEAPONS

Halton students considering bringing drugs, guns or explosives to high
school may want to re-think their plans or risk facing the dog days of school.

The region's public and Catholic boards, in conjunction with Halton
Regional Police, are reinstating a program to use trained detector dogs to
search high schools for specific dangerous or illegal items.

The Safe School Canine Initiative, which began last week with the 2003-04
school year, is a more comprehensive hybrid of the earlier Project Hall
Walk. The latter program began in Halton in 1997 but was discontinued and
put under review in 2000.

"The focus is still on detecting drugs but the difference here is locating
guns and explosives, like a pellet gun or firecrackers," said Jacki Oxley,
the Halton public board's school and community liaison officer.

Halton police drug and morality bureau officer, Const. Nishan Duraiappah,
said the program can only work with the co-operation of the school boards.

"We have to depend on both school boards and the information they provide
is (indicating) the dynamics of drug use (among teens) have changed."

"Back in the 1990s people thought there was a drug problem. The board is
telling us (now) that nobody is hiding their heads in the sand anymore."

Const. Duraiappah said it will be interesting to see if the prevalence of
what he termed "soft drugs," like marijuana and hashish, or harder drugs,
such as ecstasy, are on the rise among youths.

He noted the laws are softening on marijuana use and possession but that
school boards are remaining vigilant about the possible presence of drugs
and weapons, hence the call to police for help.

Utilizing new provincial legislation in the Safe Schools Act, the Safe
School Canine Initiative will "use a trained detector dog to search and
indicate if there are drugs and/or weapons in the hallways or parking areas
of a school," Ms Oxley said in a joint press release with the region's
Catholic board and the police service.

"This proactive and preventive measure, which is intended to raise student
awareness and hopefully change their behaviour, may be randomly implemented
at any high school of the two Halton boards, including the continuing
education services sites," she said.

Whereas Project Hall Walk provided a fair warning to parents, students and
school administrators of an impending search, this time only the principal
and vice-principal at a participating school will know about it ahead of time.

The plan is to use highly-trained sniffer dogs that work with the Canada
Customs and Revenue Agency out of Pearson International Airport. They will
walk the halls and parking lots of Halton's high schools with their police
officer handler, as well as a Halton narcotics officer, the school liaison
police officer and a school administrator.

If the dog detects what it thinks is the odour of drugs or residue from a
firearm emanating from a locker, the principal will be asked to locate the
student whose locker it is and ask him or her to open it.

If the student refuses, the school administrator can open the locker with
police confiscating whatever illegal substances may be inside.

While a small number of drug seizures were made during the three-year
Project Hall Walk program, there were no significant drug discoveries and
no charges ever laid.

One particular sweep at four high schools around Halton in 1999 uncovered a
trace amount of hashish on the floor in the girls' washroom at Aldershot
High School in Burlington and a trace amount of marijuana under a
common-area bench at E.C. Drury High School.

The Safe School Canine Initiative's new wrinkle of patrolling the parking
lot around vehicles is a murkier area, legally speaking, when it comes to
searches, said Const. Duraiappah.

If the car is unattended when a dog detects something, attempts will be
made to locate the driver. If unsuccessful, police will likely wait for the
driver to approach the vehicle and then ask him or her to give police access.

If the driver refuses, Const. Duraiappah said police may wait until the
vehicle is being driven on a public roadway before stopping it in order to
speak with its driver.

As far as the possible penalties to students should drugs or weapons be
found, Ms Oxley said police and the school board have separate sets of
criteria and responses.

She said, "If there are weapons or illegal drugs found in a particular
locker, then the first thing that happens is the parents are contacted, the
student is counselled, the administrator, depending on the circumstances,
may issue a suspension. It would be a discretionary suspension under
Section 307 of the Education Act."

Ms Oxley added that if there was a large amount of drugs or a specific type
of illegal weapon, it could lead to a student's mandatory expulsion.

As far as police action, Const. Duraiappah said depending on the individual
situation police may issue a warning letter or they may decide to lay a
charge and put the young person on the court diversion program -- if it's
the youth's first offence.

If it's a case of trafficking, meaning a large quantity of an illegal
substance, Const. Duraiappah said police could lay a charge under the
Controlled Drugs and Substances Act with the youth proceeding through the
youth criminal justice system.