BOE may get dog-sniffing demo
A panel will discuss a variety of discipline and security issues
A Board of Education committee will hear tomorrow from a company that uses dogs to search lockers at public schools on Maui for drugs alcohol and firearms.
The committee may even get a demonstration of the process.
The Special Programs Committee is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. at the Queen Liliuokalani Building to consider changes to rules governing student misconduct and discipline and school searches and seizures.
Among the draft rule changes is a provision to allow administrators to search student lockers. The proposed rules would also define cyberbullying, forgery and hazing and prohibit gadgets like laser pointers, iPods and DVD players, as well as gang paraphernalia, on school grounds.
As part of a pilot program, Interquest Detection Canines of Hawaii has been using the dogs to sniff out contraband at public schools on Maui. The board is considering whether to expand the program statewide.
The meeting will be open to the public.
A closed meeting scheduled for last Monday was canceled because of a lack of quorum, said chairwoman Mary Cochran.
The committee had been scheduled to go into executive session to hear from the attorney general's office.
After a Star-Bulletin inquiry, the state Office of Information Practices told the committee that it could hear from their attorney in executive session. But any discussion must happen in open session.
In a letter, OIP Director Les Kondo also said the board cannot meet behind closed doors just because the rule changes involve school security.
Cochran said Friday she wants the entire meeting to be held in public.
"That executive session thing is done," she said.