Board to Discuss Use of Drug-Sniffing Dogs

Responding to what school officials have called a widespread social problem rather than one specific to the area, the Las Virgenes Unified School District Board of Education tonight will discuss the use of drug-sniffing dogs on middle and secondary school campuses.

The board is expected to decide if it will contract with the Modesto-based Interquest Group Inc.’s Safe School Canines program, which uses dogs to randomly search lockers, classrooms and cars on campus. Interquest charges $600 per day and can search two schools each day, district officials said.

“We’re trying to be proactive,” said board member Barbara Bowman-Fagelson. “This is not based on anything specific except that we know that kids are using drugs and it is happening all around us.”

If the canine search program is approved, it would be implemented at Agoura and Calabasas high schools and Indian Hills Continuation High School as well as Lindero Canyon and Arthur E. Wright middle schools this fall.

District officials said drugs in Las Virgenes schools have not been a serious problem, with fewer than 10 students expelled for drug or alcohol possession last year in the middle and high schools.

But “every school at the secondary level has some problem with drugs and alcohol, and even weapons, though the severity of it often depends on the area,” said Supt. John Fitzpatrick. “The board wants to come up with as many deterrents as they can to prevent kids from bringing things on campus that they shouldn’t.”

Students who are caught with drugs on campus are automatically suspended. If the case is reviewed by the Board of Education, the student could face expulsion, he said.

Parents and administrators have had a chance to learn about the canine program from Interquest representatives, and both Fitzpatrick and Bowman-Fagelson said there has been little opposition, even from students, some of whom spoke in favor of the canine patrols at a June board meeting.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at district offices, 4111 N. Las Virgenes Road.