LAKEWOOD RANCH CONDUCTS SWEEP OF SCHOOL FOR DRUGS

EAST MANATEE COUNTY -- Drug-sniffing dogs roamed the parking lots and
checked out gym lockers at Lakewood Ranch High School on Monday in what
will become a periodic effort to seek out drug users.

Deputy Chris Folds, the school resource officer, said the random searches
weren't in response to any specific problems at the school.

Lakewood Ranch reported 19 incidents of drug use last year, excluding
alcohol, out of a reported 141 throughout the Manatee County school
district. The high school recorded three incidents involving alcohol. The
school's numbers were comparable to those at Manatee's other high schools.

No arrests were made Monday, although police did find a small amount of
marijuana in one student's car, said sheriff's Maj. Brad Stewbe. Stewbe
would not say what happened to that student.

Lakewood Ranch plans to hold more sweeps throughout the year, although
Folds would not say when or how many. The school wants to keep them a
surprise to discourage students from bringing drugs on campus at all.

"It will let them know we are serious about it," Folds said.

Random searches of lockers and student cars are legal and widespread
nationwide, though some civil rights groups oppose them.

"It does raise serious constitutional concerns. Students don't give up all
expectations of privacy when they go to schools," said Randall Marshall,
legal director for American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. "To have dogs
running up and down the hallway . we find offensive."

Neither Manatee nor Sarasota county school districts have policies
requiring the random sweeps. School principals decide when and if searches
should be done.

The Manatee County School Board endorsed such actions in 1999, saying the
searches help keep schools safer. Schools in both counties have
occasionally been conducting the searches for years.

Jan Gibbs, principal of Booker High School in Sarasota, said she has
ordered several sweeps in the past but did not find them effective in
ferreting out drugs.