DRUG DOGS TURN UP OPPOSITION

The fight is on over a Surrey school board proposal to have drug-sniffing
dogs checking lockers as part of a plan to control illicit drug use in
Surrey schools.

The proposal was voiced Monday night by trustee Heather Stilwell during a
presentation to city council by members of the city's drug-crime task
force. The locker searches would be part of a zero-tolerance policy on
drugs, she added.

Stilwell said the idea of bringing in the dogs is in the very preliminary
stages of consideration. The district is looking at what's been done in
other jurisdictions, she said, and consulting legal counsel.

Stilwell said the board has to decide if dog searches will be random or
scheduled, who will open suspect lockers and whether students and parents
should be required to sign a document giving the district permission to
search lockers.

"When that's all done, if it still seems doable, we'll start work on an
official policy. We'll have discussions with all the stakeholders, the DPAC
and the like, and then put together a policy," Stilwell said.

"I don't see it happening this school year."

The district already has a zero-tolerance policy on violence with penalties
ranging from suspension to expulsion, and the drug policy would likely take
a similar approach, she said.

Stilwell also said a private company would be used to carry out the dog
patrols, not police.

"Police have to have probable cause to go in and they don't have the
manpower. If a principal thinks he has a problem in his school, we want him
to be able to get it done."

The plan was attacked by drug and alcohol counsellor Chris Silvester, who
is campaigning for a school board seat. Silvester dismissed the whole thing
as an attempt by the Surrey Electors Team board members to win votes on
Nov. 16.

"They should have been educating kids about drugs. You don't use
zero-tolerance to punish kids, you educate them. If you tell people about
the negative effects of drugs, they'll make healthy choices," he said.
Stilwell said anti-drug programs have been offered in Surrey schools for
years and more are being studied with an eye to including them.

"If there have been any failures, it's that we have had programs over the
years without really knowing if they've been effective. We've been getting
at that for the last three years. We're right now doing assessments,
finding out what's out there and what works."

Silvester also worried kids who simply experiment with drugs could end up
being tossed out of school and missing out on their education. That's one
of a number of issues the board wants to study, Stilwell said.

"That's why any policy has to be crafted very carefully. It doesn't seem to
me to be a sensible way the policy could be written; we have a
responsibility to educate these kids," she said. "I don't know, it's a
blank page at this stage."