DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS INSPECT LOCAL HIGH SCHOOLS

A pack of drug-sniffing dogs descended upon Wood County's three high
school's Monday and, school officials are pleased to say, found nothing.
The police dogs searched Williamstown, Parkersburg South and Parkersburg
High Schools in a coordinated effort at 8:15 a.m. The search uncovered no
illegal substances or objects, said Robert Newell, Parkersburg police
chief. Police were searching for guns and bombs as well as drugs, he said.

The dogs did smell some things that triggered responses, and officers
quickly obtained search warrants for several vehicles, Newell said.

Nothing illegal was found, he said.

The search was conducted at the request of the county board of education,
Newell said. Nine dogs from six law enforcement agencies were involved in
the search, he said.

The searches at three high school were coordinated to occur within a couple
minutes of one another, said Superintendent Dan Curry.

"The element of surprise is always important when you undertake a big
operation like this," he said. "Usually, only one school at a time is
searched."

While students were contained in their first period classrooms, the
drug-sniffing dogs searched classrooms, the Field House Annex and the
parking lot, but did not find anything, said Parkersburg Principal Bill Niday.

"This is absolutely what we wanted to hear," Niday said. "That really
speaks well of the students we have here at Parkersburg High School. We are
very pleased."

"I'm not so naive to think our students don't sometimes get involved with
drugs," Curry said, "some of them surely do. However, to have an operation
so broad in scope come up with nothing points to the fact that most of our
students are clean."

School officials kept PHS students in their first-period classrooms for an
additional 20 minutes, Niday said. The dogs searched lockers, the parking
lot and about 30 percent of classrooms, he said.

In those randomly selected classrooms, students cleared the rooms, leaving
their backpacks behind, which the dogs sniffed for drugs, Niday said.

The last drug search conducted on this scale at Parkersburg High School was
two years ago, when drug-sniffing dogs found a small amount of marijuana in
a car, Niday said.

Future searches could come at any time, Niday said.

"There's always a standing invitation open to police," he said.

Larry Barton, Williamstown High School principal, said, unlike the county's
other high schools, individual classrooms were not searched. Williamstown
policy prohibits students from carrying their backpacks into the
classrooms, he said.

Students at Williamstown had to remain in their first-period classrooms
about 15 minutes longer than usual, he said. The procedure Williamstown
used to keep the hallways clear and students in the classroom is the same
it would use in a serious emergency, such as a for a chemical disaster or
if a gunman had entered the school, Barton said.

"We told the students it was a drill to put them at ease," Barton said.
"Everyone remained calm and the teachers kept on teaching."

Parkersburg, Marietta, Belpre, Gallipolis, Vienna and Meigs County police
and the Department of Corrections participated in the countywide search,
Newell said.