[ OUR OPINION ]

Drug policy should
be set before dogs
come to school

Before such a program can be put into place, legal issues and department policies about drug and alcohol abuse prevention, education and treatment first need to be worked out. In addition, the board should examine how productive detection would be in that context.

A Maui-based company last month gave a demonstration of its services that are now being used in two private schools on Oahu, impressing some board members with a dog's ability to scent hidden drugs, alcohol and firearms.

Mary Cochran, chairwoman of the board's special programs committee, proposed that individual schools be given the option of hiring the company, using donations from businesses or community groups to pay the cost.

The idea would be to allow the dogs to sniff through lockers, cars or students' book bags, but keep them away from the children themselves. If contraband is suspected, school officials would conduct searches and deal with the children who may be involved.

However, the board correctly reasoned that detection would have to fit in with a broad plan for handling substance abuse in the schools. Moreover, a number of legal problems need to be studied.

Among them are whether school officials can lawfully question minors and possibly their parents, conduct searches of their possessions, under what circumstances to involve police authorities, if at all, how discipline or penalties will be employed, and how to assign culpability in shared or easily accessible spaces like lockers.

Further, the board needs to look at whether dogs sniffing through school facilities create an intimidating atmosphere that might do more harm than good. There are also questions about mistakes, since of two cases of detection by the company's dogs at a private school, no contraband was found in one.

How much of a deterrence the dogs will be is uncertain. "Students will soon learn to keep any contraband on their person rather than in their lockers or cars," said Pamela Lichty of the Drug Policy Action Group.

If identifying substance abusers is the goal, student behavior is usually a better indicator, teachers and school administrators acknowledge. It's getting these children the help they need and preventing others from becoming users that should be of primary importance.