School Board Delays Vote on Letting Dogs Search for Drugs

Facing protests from students who claimed their rights to privacy would be violated, Simi Valley school officials postponed a vote Tuesday on whether to allow police dogs onto high school and junior high campuses to sniff lockers for drugs.

A divided Simi Valley Unified School Board instructed its staff to bring back a report on legal and ethical issues involved with having dogs sniff lockers for drugs.

“Students need to be part of the solution,” said Trustee Debbie Sandland, adding that students should work with administration to solve the problems of drugs on campus. “Clearly we’re in the business of educating students. We’re not in the business of training dogs.” School board members Diane Collins and Karla Kurachi voted with Sandland to postpone the discussion.

Several students complained to the board that bringing dogs on campus would not only be ineffective but it would create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

“It gives the false impression that the drug problem is so bad you have to call in the police,” said Mona Tewfik, a junior at Simi Valley High.

Simi High senior Jackie Preciado said the school board was “looking for a simple answer to a complex question. It will only result in alienating students.”

The police dogs, which are trained animals working in Ventura County law enforcement, would begin sniffing out drugs next spring.

Students would be in class during the sniff tests, which would be conducted occasionally by 10 teams of dogs and officers as training missions for the animals.

The police would mark the lockers identified by the dogs and then exit the campus, leaving any discipline to school administrators.

Simi Valley Unified School District Supt. Mary Beth Wolford proposed the idea as a means of deterring students from bringing drugs to school.