DRUG DOGS SNIFF EVEN 6-YEAR-OLDS; PARENTS SUE

The parents of 17 students, some as young as 6, filed a lawsuit yesterday
against a South Dakota school board and police department for taking a
drug-sniffing dog into a school to check children in every classroom, from
kindergarten through high school.

The suit, filed in federal court in Sioux Falls, says the principal of the
school, the Wagner Community School, announced in a first-period class in
early May that the school was in a lockdown and that students could not
leave their classrooms. Wagner police and federal officers then took the
dog into classes, the suit contends, frightening some students so badly
that they cried and at least one urinated involuntarily.

Kenneth Cotton, the school district's lawyer, said he could not comment on
the case because he had not talked to the school board or administrators.
"All I know is that I have a sixth grader and a ninth grader," Mr. Cotton
said, "and when I asked them about it, they said a dog had come to their
classrooms, walked up and down in an orderly way and left after about two
minutes. I can't tell you why the dog was brought into the classrooms, but
I know there is a drug problem in the community and zero tolerance for
drugs in the school."

Last month, the United States Supreme Court upheld random drug tests for
students who take part in extracurricular activities, opening the way to
more aggressive drug enforcement in schools.

Since the late 1980's, many schools, including Wagner's, have used dogs to
search lockers and hallways. Courts have allowed that because the lockers
are school property. Education lawyers said that dogs had searched older
students but that two federal appeals courts had found the practice
unconstitutional.

Graham Boyd, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Drug Policy
Litigation Project and lead lawyer in the South Dakota case, said the use
of the dog, a German shepherd, in the classrooms terrorized many of the
children.

"This is the first time I've heard of dogs being brought into kindergarten
classes," Mr. Boyd said. "It's such a scary disruption for young children.
I absolutely share the commitment of school officials to come up with
solutions to drug abuse, but I'm concerned that some schools seem to lose
all grasp on common sense."

He said the drug searches were especially traumatic to children like
Kayedee Deverney, 11, who has been bitten by dogs three times seriously
enough to require medical treatment. After the dog went to her classroom,
Mr. Boyd said, Kayedee became afraid to attend school, worrying that the
dog would reappear - as it did, in a second lockdown a few days after the
first search.

In one kindergarten classroom, the suit contends, the dog got away from its
handler and chased students around the room, and it put its feet on
students' desks several times and strained against the leash. Students were
told to keep their hands on their desks and not to pet the dog or make
sudden movements. In some classrooms, school officials warned students that
sudden movements might make the dog attack.

The lawsuit seeks both compensation and an order barring dog searches in
classrooms when school resumes on Aug. 20.

Wagner, population about 1,600 and 85 miles west-southwest of Sioux Falls,
is near the Yankton Sioux Reservation, and the children involved in the
lawsuit are Indians.

The lawsuit also names the Interior Department's assistant secretary of
Indian affairs as a defendant because the drug-detecting dog belonged to
the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The civil liberties union has another lawsuit
against the Wagner school board awaiting resolution. It contends that
Wagner's election system for the school board discriminates against
Indians. Indians make up 40 percent of the district's population, but all
members of the school board are white.