DOGS TO SNIFF FOR DRUGS IN AKRON SCHOOLS CLASSROOMS

Searches To Include Students' Coats, Book Bags And Purses, Not Just Lockers

Some Akron schools will soon have a few four-legged guests visiting their
classrooms and looking for trouble.

The district's security team will begin using drug-sniffing dogs over the
next few months for surprise checks at all of its middle and high schools.

The district typically uses dogs to search buildings and lockers after
school and after students have been dismissed for the day and left campus.

Now, Akron school officials say they will bring in the dogs while students
are still in class -- a method intended to catch more drug violators.

Connie Hathorn, Akron schools executive director of Student Services and
Security, said the district borrowed its new search method from some
suburban districts, including Revere, Wadsworth and Cuyahoga Falls school
districts.

Hathorn said some dogs will be in the parking lots checking around student
cars. The other dogs will be brought inside the buildings.

When the searches are taking place, the building will sort of go into a
``lockdown mode,'' Hathorn said. But the dogs will not come into direct
contact with the students.

Students will be asked to walk out into a hallway but leave their purses,
book bags, coats and other belongings in the classroom. At that point, the
dogs will search the rooms and sniff around the students' belongings.

After the search, the students will be allowed to return to class.

Students discovered with drugs can be suspended or expelled from school and
could face criminal charges.

Over the past three years, the district has suspended 120 students and
expelled 41 for drug use or possession during school.

Hathorn said the Akron schools are working with the Akron Police Department
and Summit County Office and will use about five or six dogs during each
search.

All eight high schools and 10 middle schools will be searched -- and maybe
more than once.