DRUGS VERSUS HUMAN RIGHTS AT PCSS

Despite efforts to halt the process, Porter Creek Secondary is one
step closer to having a drug-detecting dog walking the halls of the school.

The school's advisory committee has hired a dog handler for the
program, Canines for Safer Schools, despite a human rights complaint
lodged by the family of a student attending the school.

The student has an allergy to dogs. The family, which asked for
anonymity, said the initiative violates the student's right to attend
a dog-free school.

The complaint was taken to the Yukon Human Rights Commission in August of 2006.

Since then, Kerry Huff, principal of Porter Creek Secondary School,
has been trying to come up with ways to enable the school have a
drug-dog while accommodating the student with the allergy.

"The Human Rights Commission hasn't told us we can't yet," said Huff.

"Our position is that we can accommodate the student.

"We believe we can have a dog that is hypoallergenic, that it doesn't
shed and the amount of dander coming from the dog would be no more
than people coming into the building with dog hair on themselves.

"We can certainly assure the student that there would be no direct
contact with the dog; we could even minimize the dog being in the
vicinity of the student."

The Human Rights Commission will be given two weeks notice of the
dog's appearance in the school, said Rosemary Burns of the department
of Education.

The department wants the drug-sniffing dog, and that's the best it
can do, she said.

There is a drug problem at the school, and it's frustrating one
family can stall a process the whole community supports, said Mike
Gladish, who sits on the school's advisory committee.

"As far as the school council and the committee is aware, as soon as
that dog comes in the school they're going to be slapped with a human
rights violation -- that's the threat that they're facing," said Gladish.

"So they're trying to work around it by hiring the person who will
work with the dog and if it's an issue the dog won't go in the school
at that point, but at least they'll have the program underway.

"If there is a perceived problem that the dog is going in the school,
then the committee is prepared to not have the dog in the school in
the immediate future with the idea that eventually this will be settled.

"So they're not letting it stop them, but it has created delays and
frustration.

"A group that thought this was going to be started last September is
still spinning their wheels trying to get things going."

The idea of having a drug dog in the school came from a group of
concerned parents.

They approached Huff and the school council with information about
the Canines for Safer Schools program.

To help explain the program, they brought a speaker up from Medicine
Hat, Alberta, where the program has been dubbed a success.

The pitch convinced Huff and the school council, and they started
planning to get a dog at Porter Creek Secondary.

The Education department supported the idea, agreeing to fund a
three-year pilot study at the school for $275,000.

Porter Creek Secondary isn't about to become a policed school guarded
by a snarling German Shepard.

"They have a situation where they bring in a little wee puppy and
they raise it as kind of a mascot within the school; it stays there
for a year, goes out and gets training so it can then detect drugs
and the theory is that the dog is not a great big German Shepard,
it's a very cute and cuddly little Lab or something," said Huff.

"The kids kind of grow up with it and learn to like it, learn to
communicate with it and it functions as something that is both a
deterrent and something that, in fact, can detect drugs," said Huff.

To avoid other human rights violations, the dog would never be used
to conduct random locker searches.

It would also be trained to mingle among the students, only working
to detect drugs some of the time.

If the dog detected drugs on a student, it would simply sit down.

This way, the student that has been flagged will not be singled out
in front of his or her peers.

From that point, Huff would deal with the student, maybe asking the
student to empty their pockets.

A body search would be out of the question, though a locker check
might be conducted, said Huff.

Only the principal is allowed to conduct locker searches and even
then he has to be pretty sure he will find contraband within the locker.

"It would not be our intent to take the dog in and out of classrooms
and sniff people while they are trying to work," said Huff.

"Our hope is that it will be enough of a deterrent that the drugs
just won't get here."

If drugs are found on a student, or a student is found intoxicated,
the police normally wouldn't be called, said Huff.

"We generally inform the parents," he said.

"We think that is another big part of this whole process.

"We're not trying to throw a bunch of kids in jail; we're trying to
prevent them from bringing drugs to school or being exposed to others
trying to sell drugs at school.

"So, if we're talking about a student who might have gone out into
the bush and smoked up at lunch we would probably go with a school
suspension and inform the parents and if we can catch them early
enough and soon enough, parents who might be not aware that their kid
is involved in that hopefully would then intervene at home."

This has very strong support from our students as well; in fact,
they've been pushing us lately, wondering what the hold up is, said Huff.

They're eager to get the drugs out of their school, he added.

"Most kids don't do drugs and they don't want to be exposed to the
peer pressure of having to," he said.

"That's a big part of it, it's not just catching people, it's trying
to prevent some of our younger students, especially, from being
exposed to that kind of pressure."