DRUG-SNIFFING DOG THREAT AT MCMURRAY SCHOOL DRAWS FLAK

FORT McMURRAY - Alberta's Privacy Commissioner said this week the idea
of using drug-sniffing dogs to track drug-related activity among Fort
McMurray Composite high school students reminds him of a bad Second
World War movie.

Frank Work said such a move could be a violation of the students'
civil liberties.

"I don't think you do something like this on fishing trips," he
said.

He said it upsets him when administrations use force instead of
compassion to rule schools.

"If they keep doing it, it teaches kids that this is the norm," he
said. "This is not how we want to be doing things in this country."

Work said that if Comp principal Phil Meagher insists on going ahead
with the use of drug-sniffing dogs (as the principal said he would
last week), then he owes his students an explanation.

Meagher said if RCMP aren't legally allowed to search his schools,
then he'll find some other way to do it.

"There are always other ways," he said. "Some of those ways I can't
discuss."

Sharon Clarkson, chairwoman of the public school board, said that
police dogs cannot just be brought into a school.

She said that while all of Fort McMurray's schools have strict
regulations against alcohol, smoking and drugs, administration must
try to work with students and not against them.

"While I understand (Meagher's) passion, we have to respect that laws
are in place not only to correct, but also to protect. We have to be
aware of every individuals' rights," she said.