CALL OFF THE DOGS

It's time to call off the dogs in our schools and bring in people to talk
to our youths about the law.

As a member of a school council, my opposition and another parent's has
meant that canine units have not been used in the Ottawa high school which
my children attend. This is a disruptive, and for students fearful of dogs,
very frightening procedure.

The canine unit is usually employed as "part of an overall school-based
drug/alcohol prevention program" and to supposedly "promote the range of
police services available within the schools." Apparently it is a "rare
occasion that a police investigation necessitates the use of a canine
specific to a drug investigation" -- which is the only acceptable reason
for using the canine unit. Without reasonable and probable grounds, I feel
these searches constitute an unreasonable exercise of search and seizure.

I would prefer to see the canine unit being redirected into something
positive such as police-run education programs geared at informing students
about the legal ramifications of drug and alcohol abuse as well as related
crime. Our young people are not as well-informed as we might think.

Shirley Mask Connolly, Ottawa