Simi School Officials Expected to OK Canine Checks of Lockers for Drugs

Despite outrage among some students over the prospect of police dogs sniff-searching high school lockers for drugs, Simi Valley school officials are poised to approve such a program at a meeting today.

The sniff-searches, which would be periodic and come without warning to students, would be used by Ventura County law enforcement teams as training exercises for their police dogs and the officers who handle them. Students would be in class during the searches.

Students adamantly protested the proposal at a Simi Valley Unified School District board meeting three weeks ago, when Charlie the police dog demonstrated his technique along with officer Sterling Johnson.

Other students said Monday that they plan to speak against the policy at tonight’s board meeting, calling it an authoritarian tactic that won’t work.

“I’m really anti-drug because they do generate problems,” said Simi Valley senior Johnny Iucci. “But students who do bring drugs to school have them on them, not in their lockers. We know the lockers are not ours and can be searched.”

Members of the Simi Valley Unified School District board, however, have held their ground in favor of the proposal.

“The bottom line is, if students have no drugs in their lockers, they have nothing to worry about,” said board President Judy Barry.

The board is scheduled to make a final decision today on whether to invite a 10-officer, 10-dog training team onto its high school campuses.

During the training drills, the dogs--all experienced in law enforcement in the county--would sniff each student locker. The lockers picked out by dogs would be marked with a sticker or tape to identify them for administrators. Police would leave it to administrators to handle any enforcement or discipline.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ann Brick called the sniff tests a violation of students’ right to privacy. Administrators can search lockers with “reasonable cause,” she said, but the issue of whether a sniff test constitutes a search will have to be decided in court.

Although a few students defended the plan at the board meeting last month as a means to deter students from using drugs, others complained Monday that the policy is too intimidating.

“We have bars around the school and we have guards--old ladies who pester you about passes--and they have walkie-talkies the administration uses out scouting the campus for problems,” Iucci said. “It makes me feel like I’m in jail.”

“It’s very incriminating toward a lot of people who don’t do drugs,” said Katie Hearn, a junior.

Hearn’s mother, Carole Weiss, said she was initially in favor of the policy but now worries that her children and their friends could be marked as drug users if dogs incorrectly identified their lockers.

“I applaud their efforts to do something about drugs on campus,” she said. “But how can they guarantee there will be no mistakes?”

Police officials said dogs can make mistakes by identifying materials made from marijuana products and lockers where residue lingers from drugs that are no longer present. But they said those situations are rare.

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District Supt. Mary Beth Wolford proposed the idea as a means to deter students from bringing drugs on campus, at no charge to the district. Four of five board members supported the plan at a meeting last month.

Similar searches have been conducted in Ventura, resulting in one false identification when one locker contained a sandwich, Ventura High School Principal Henry Robertson said.

Simi High teacher Tad Butts, whose history and drama classes discussed and debated the issue, said he also opposes the proposal.

“I think it sends the wrong message to students,” he said. “It creates an atmosphere of intimidation and suspicion when we are trying to create a positive learning environment.”