SECONDARY SCHOOLS USING DRUG-SNIFFING DOGS

The Mukilteo School District is using specially trained drug-detection dogs
to sniff the lockers, classrooms, common areas and cars at the district's
middle and high schools.

"I'd rather not be doing this," said Rick Robbins, executive director of
secondary education for Mukilteo schools. "I'd like to say that we don't
have a drug problem, but that's not true."

The district is contracting with a Mount Vernon company called Washington
Tactical K-9, which is state-licensed and authorized by the Drug
Enforcement Administration to conduct the searches.

Mukilteo may be the first school district in Snohomish County to use
private drug-

detection dogs as a part of its anti-drug efforts. A few high schools in
Skagit County have contracted with a private canine service, and the
Mukilteo district's Mariner High has had a couple of "courtesy visits" from
the Snohomish County sheriff's dog patrol.

The company's dog handlers are not police officers, but they have
law-enforcement backgrounds. Accompanied by school employees, they will
conduct 90 random inspections of Mukilteo's secondary schools this school
year. Handlers and their dogs -- two Rottweilers, two Dutch shepherds, a
Labrador retriever and a German shepherd -- will also spend 100 hours in
classrooms assisting with the schools' drug- and alcohol-education programs.

In anticipation of constitutional questions the move may bring up, school
officials sent a letter to all parents, inviting them to two informational
meetings on how and why the inspections will proceed. They were sparsely
attended, but none of the parents present disagreed with the program.

"Is it controversial? I don't think it should be," Robbins said. "We're not
going to be violating any civil rights; we're going to be very aggressive
about getting drugs out of our schools."

The schools had done searches before; they just hadn't used dogs. Before
this year, to initiate a search of a locker, school administrators used
criteria such as a student reeking of marijuana or another student
witnessing a drug deal to constitute a "reasonable suspicion" of a
student's drug use. Now, if a dog "alerts" on a locker, school officials
will use that as "reasonable suspicion" to search it.

Students Often 'Very Resentful' Of Searches

Dogs have been used for drug detection in Washington schools for several
years, said Doug Honig, public-education director of the American Civil
Liberties Union of Washington, an organization that has mounted legal
challenges to school districts' drug tests of athletes and other issues of
students' privacy rights.

"A lot of the time, students are very resentful of dogs being brought in,"
Honig said. "They see it as an invasion of their privacy and a heavy-handed
tactic."

School officials said using detection dogs to sniff the outside of
students' lockers is not a violation of the state and U.S. constitutions
because the lockers are considered school property and students should have
no expectation of privacy for what's kept inside. The ACLU agrees, with
reservations.

One Washington Tactical K-9 detection dog is capable of sniffing 700
lockers and 300 cars in 45 minutes. The dogs can detect marijuana, hash,
cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and recently fired firearms even when
camouflaged with pepper, air fresheners or dryer sheets, said Jim Beernink,
president of Washington Tactical K-9.

Each inspection will be conducted at random, he said. The handler will
first check in at the main office, and all classes will be "locked down" so
no students can be in the search areas. The dogs will then be walked
through restrooms, along rows of lockers and desks, and through parking lots.

Beernink brought a Rottweiler, Tracker, to an informational meeting last
week to demonstrate how it works. Tracker searched an auditorium for tennis
balls tainted with marijuana residue, sitting down as soon as he found them.

The dogs are one part of a larger plan to combat the problem of drugs in
Mukilteo schools. Other steps include the hiring of three drug- and
alcohol-intervention specialists.

District's Drug-Use Message: 'Not Here'

School officials don't have definitive numbers on the size of the drug
problem; it's probably not much different from schools across the country,
said Andy Muntz, a spokesman for the district. But officials point to
Snohomish County's high national ranking in meth abuse and the popularity
of Ecstasy among teens as reasons to take a harder stance on drugs.

"We can't control what society does," Robbins said. "But they're ours for
six or seven hours a day, and this is the message we want to send: 'Not
here.' "

Beernink said his company's purpose is not to catch kids and put them in
jail; the canine patrols are expected to work more as deterrents. If drugs
are found, arrests would not necessarily follow. Depending on the amounts
found, the school would contact parents, assess the students and likely
order suspensions.

"We want kids to know we care, we're paying attention and that it's not OK
to bring drugs to school," Robbins said.