District dumps drug dogs - Mairn IJ - May, 20, 2006 By Don Speich

District dumps drug dogs
Don Speich
In an about-face, Sausalito Marin City School District trustees killed a drug-sniffing dog program that critics had assailed as ill-conceived, clumsily implemented and an assault on students' rights. District trustees ended the controversial proposal Thursday night in the same fashion they approved it last November: by a unanimous vote.
"You are never to have these dogs come back for any reason," mathematics teacher David Wetzel admonished the board. Wetzel teaches at Tamalpais High School and at Martin Luther King Jr. Academy middle school in Marin City, where the dogs were slated for monthly visits.
His remarks were tinged with emotion, as were those of other speakers, many of whom since early this year have demanded the board reverse its decision that would have had Interquest Detection Canines of Houston perform monthly inspections at a cost of $2,500.
District spokesman Martin Brown said the money, under terms of the contract, already has been paid to the Houston firm.
Wetzel said the board would have been better served had the district employed community members "who could use the money" to inspect the campus for signs of drug use, such as a syringe Trustee Tom Clark said he found on the outskirts of the six-acre campus.
"If a child had fallen on the syringe," said Clark prior to Wetzel's remarks, "(the child) could have died of AIDS."
Because of this, Clark's motion to end the dog program was coupled with another to encourage local law enforcement agencies to more aggressively enforce state laws and prosecute anyone caught using drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.
Trustee Whitney Hoyt summed up the sentiment of many, saying she agreed with comments during the meeting that "sniffing doesn't educate."
The program was suspended in March after only one visit to the campus in January by the dogs to introduce the animals to the students. No inspection was performed.
Trustees directed staffers to study the use of dogs along with other possible ways to prevent drug use at a campus where all trustees agreed there was no evidence of drug use.
Trustees maintained the dogs were simply a "tool" to prove they were right and to mollify any concerns in the community that there was anything afoot in the school - such as drug use - that could prevent students from succeeding.
Mary Buttler, who until recently was the interim superintendent of the district, headed the study and formed several focus groups representing parents, community members, students and staff. Each, meeting separately, came back with the same No. 1 recommendation: "no drug dogs."
Parents and community leaders protested the program after officials announced in January that dogs would be visiting the middle school just a couple of days before the actual visit - they said that was the first they had heard of the program. The controversy grew after the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People demanded the program be ended.
ACLU leaders said the program violated students' constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, based largely on the trustees' contention that there was no evidence of drug use at MLK.
Some trustees said Thursday the program was not without its merits. It prompted parents and community members to become involved with the district, something they claim has not been the norm. "If anything came out of this dog issue it was to stimulate more parental and community involvement," said Trustee Robert Fisher. "It has helped to bring the community to us."
Contact Don Speich via e-mail at dspeich@marinij.com