ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : When Schools Go to the Dogs

There must be a better way to discourage drug use among Huntington Beach Union High School District students. The district plans to allow drug-sniffing dogs to patrol seven schools to check out lockers and cars parked on school grounds.

Mind you, the district reports no increase in drug sales or use among the students. Like the Orange Unified School District earlier this year, it simply wants to “send a message.”

The question is how to do that in a way that is respectful of students’ privacy. Balancing rights with the desirable goal of promoting a drug-free campus is a delicate task.

It’s hard to see what the Huntington Beach plan will achieve other than scaring students. That’s true even if steps are taken, as promised, to ensure that dogs don’t brush against students during the searches.

The dogs will send a message, all right, but it might be different from the one intended. Canine patrols in the corridors may foster an eerie police-state atmosphere in a setting supposedly devoted to learning. It suggests also that students have something to hide.

That said, the plan turns out to be less intrusive than Orange’s ill-conceived offloading of school buses to allow dogs on board early this year. Orange since has affirmed that policy, despite the criticism that greeted it. Thankfully there have been no searches in Orange since January. Let there be no more of them, either.

The Huntington Beach plan at least does not involve such a direct disruption of routine. It, too, is well-intentioned in seeking to deter drug use by enlisting the assistance of police in the three cities served by the public high schools--Huntington Beach, Westminster and Fountain Valley. It would be better, though, to concentrate on alternative ways of discouraging young people from taking drugs that are both illegal and that drain the promise out of their young lives.