DRUG DOGS TO WALK MHS HALLS

Some time before Spring Break, students may see drug-sniffing dogs roaming
the halls of Manhattan High School. That's because administrators there say
drug use is on the rise. "It has become apparent as we deal with discipline
issues, even as you read the arrest reports in the newspaper," said MHS
principal Teresa Miller. She said the school already has made efforts to
curb alcohol use, which she said tends to be the gateway to further drug
use. For example, a student can be tested with an intoxilyzer if a staff
member thinks he or she has been drinking. In her three years as an
administrator at the high school, though, Miller said she's noticed a
marked increase in apparent drug use. "I can tell by how many (discipline)
referrals we get," Miller said. "Parents also have told me that they are
concerned about kids' access to drugs.

It is quite a bit more serious than anyone thought, and the kids confirm to
me that there is tremendous access to drugs." What constitutes an increase,
however, seems hard to quantify. "I can't tell if there has been any
intensification in drug use compared to last year," said Riley County
Police Department school resource officer John Winkler, "but I know that
there is a problem because I take the kids to jail and recover the drugs."
He said he thinks Miller is simply being proactive.

He said he couldn't put a number on the times he's detained students in
connection with drugs, but that he thinks the concerns voiced by parents
and staffers are enough to indicate a problem. "The number of arrests is
not necessarily a good indicator of what degree our 'market' is saturated,"
Winkler said. "The best indicator is what you hear from the students,
teachers and parents, and there has been a powerful sentiment expressed by
all three of those actors that something has got to be done." Miller and
Winkler agree that marijuana is the most prevalent drug, followed by
cocaine and ecstasy.

Miller said the overall number of kids who use is small but seems to be
affecting a group of kids that would not have been typical users before.
"Kids seem to think we can't do anything about it," she said. So Miller has
decided to bring in the dogs.

"There are a lot high schools smaller than ours using drug-sniffing dogs,"
she said. Winkler said 16 of the 18 area high schools he contacted use the
specially trained canines from time to time, including every high school in
Pottawatomie County. A certified trainer in Junction City will likely
provide the dogs for Manhattan, Miller said. "We hope that running the dogs
through one or two times will send a message," she said. In addition,
school staffers can use a new test in which the suspected user's mouth is
swabbed to tell what drugs may be in his or her system. Miller said she
thinks it's easy for parents and community members to think there is no
problem. "Parents have to start asking their children where they are going
and what they are doing," she said. She said the presence of Kansas State
University and the mixing of the 18- to 20 year-old crowd with some of the
older high schoolers may make drugs easier to get. Winkler, however, didn't
agree that there's much connection. "We live in a transient community," he
said. "How that affects the high school here is anybody's guess."