DOG WILL SNIFF OUT TROUBLE AT SCHOOL

Safe School Canine Initiative on the Hunt for Gun and Drugs

Halton students considering bringing drugs, guns or explosives to high
school may want to re-think that strategy or possibly face the dog
days of school.

Halton's public and Catholic school 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 begins with the 2003-04
school year, is a more comprehensive hybrid of the earlier Project
Hall Walk. The latter 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.

A Halton police drug and morality bureau officer 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," said Nishan Duraiappah.

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

Duraiappah said it will be interesting to see if the prevalence of
what he termed "soft drugs", like marijuana and hashish, or harder
drugs like chemical 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 their 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," Oxley said in a joint press release with
the Halton Catholic District School 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, a general notice
perhaps a couple of weeks in advance, this time only the principal and
vice-principal at a school willing to participate in a search 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 odor 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 them to open it.

If the student refuses, the school administrator can open the locker
themselves 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 H.S. and a trace amount of marijuana under a
common-area bench at E.C. Drury in Milton.

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 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 them to give
police access.

If the driver refuses, Duraiappah said police may wait until the
vehicle is being operated on a public roadway before stopping it for a
contact with its operator.

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

"We use a progressive type of discipline," she said of the
board.

"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."

Oxley said 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, 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 is the youth's first offence.

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