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'Every school has drugs in it': West Michgan districts use random canine searches to find contraband
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- From alcohol stored inside plastic food containers and marijuana pipes fashioned out of produce, West Michigan school leaders routinely find students trying to hide contraband on district grounds.
And in some instances the discoveries are being made with the help of drug dogs searching buildings in a move that administrators say is equal parts prevention and awareness.
“Every school has drugs in it, this is one of our ways to control that,” Charlie Brown, Rockford Public Schools security director, said of canine searches at the district's middle and high schools. “We believe it works.”
Rockford is among several West Michigan school systems that hire Interquest Detection Canines of Michigan Inc. to perform the inspections.
The dogs, which are trained to find drugs, alcohol, gun powder-based products, tobacco and medications, also are used locally in Grandville, Forest Hills, East Kentwood and Byron Center schools among 46 districts across the state. East Grand Rapids uses the city's public safety department to conduct regular searches on its high school campus.
Records obtained by MLive and the Grand Rapids Press under the Freedom of Information Act show the findings by dogs at area schools are relatively low compared to overall student population, but educators believe the more vigilant they are, the better for students.
The public records request showed the discovery of more than 86 prohibited substances or items at the area schools that have used Interquest since 2011. Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana or drug paraphernalia were the most common finds, but dogs also alerted to fireworks and a toy cap gun among other items banned from school property.
The dogs have come up with 28 student code violations at the six Forest Hills high and middle schools, the most in the region. Canine searches at Grandville revealed 26 hits, Kentwood with 22, 10 at Byron Center and Rockford with two. East Grand Rapids searches found no substances or weapons.
There is no mandate for documenting details of what the dogs find and district record-keeping varies, making complete comparisons between districts difficult. The figures also don't include items found by security staff or administrators during the year.
Part of today's school climate
While the searches, such as a Thursday, Oct. 30, check at Forest Hills Central High, are performed randomly, they shouldn't come as a surprise.
Schools hold student assemblies to explain where dogs will likely search, where they cannot search - privacy protections state individual students can not be a target - and about how punishments can run from detention to suspension if substances are found. Parents have been told about the inspections in newsletters and at parent-teacher organization meetings. Byron Center sends a video message to students and their families to notify them.
"It’s not about busting them, it’s about them not having it," Byron Center High School Principal Scott Joseph said.
Administrators and the canine handlers contend the searches are fair and accurate, and fall into an overall security and safety plan, but the American Civil Liberties Union isn't completely on board. The group contends false positives can disrupt students' lives.
“It turns students into suspects in a place where we should be nurturing them and focusing on their learning,” said Marc Allen, of the ACLU of Michigan. “There are ways to do a search that are more narrow and don’t implicate people’s privacy rights.”
Forest Hills Central Principal Steve Passinault said the searches are part of creating a caring atmosphere.
“We want kids to be successful here and we want them to feel that being safe and secure in their environment is very important,” Passinault said. “They don’t want illegal substances in their building. They want a safe environment and they know that by doing these searches, it helps us reach that goal.”
Noses to the ground
East Kentwood, Rockford and Forest Hills Northern and Central high schools have already experienced the fishing expeditions this fall.
The searches play out as students sit behind closed classroom doors. At one inspection at North Rockford Middle School last spring, three golden retrievers and their handlers quietly roamed the halls sniffing lockers, garbage cans, water fountains and display cases in addition to the nooks and crannies of buildings.
On this day, "Murphy" is led by Kim Heys, who owns the Michigan Interquest franchise. The 5-year-old canine rolled through the halls with his nose to the ground until he picked up a suspicious scent inside a locker and sat down next to it. Heys rewarded him with a toy and a school security officer opened the door.
Heys pulled out a small container labeled “pseudo heroin” and sealed it in a plastic bag. The imitation narcotic was one of several substances she and the other handlers had planted prior to the search to be sure the canines are performing.
Heys said the searches don't interfere with school activities and the students accept the animals as part of a normal day.
School leaders say they try to use the measured discipline when items that shouldn't be at school are located. Sometimes it's prescribed medication that hasn't gone through proper school protocol and other times the dogs have found hunting firearms inadvertently left in cars.
“When you’re in a situation like that, you have to use common sense,” Grandville High School Principal Chris VanderSlice said. “Those aren’t the situations we’re trying to catch.”
And when illegal substances are found, it's more about intervention than punishment even though consequences routinely follow based on the degree of violation.
East Kentwood Superintendent Mike Zoerhoff, whose district has handed down Saturday schools and suspensions for substance violations, noted that discoveries have fallen since 2011, when there were 12. In 2012, the dogs made eight hits and last year, only two.
“We are proud of the steady decline in discipline over the last three years and it appears that the canine searches are accomplishing what we had hoped,” he said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/11/west_michigan_school_districts_9.html
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- From alcohol stored inside plastic food containers and marijuana pipes fashioned out of produce, West Michigan school leaders routinely find students trying to hide contraband on district grounds.
And in some instances the discoveries are being made with the help of drug dogs searching buildings in a move that administrators say is equal parts prevention and awareness.
“Every school has drugs in it, this is one of our ways to control that,” Charlie Brown, Rockford Public Schools security director, said of canine searches at the district's middle and high schools. “We believe it works.”
Rockford is among several West Michigan school systems that hire Interquest Detection Canines of Michigan Inc. to perform the inspections.
The dogs, which are trained to find drugs, alcohol, gun powder-based products, tobacco and medications, also are used locally in Grandville, Forest Hills, East Kentwood and Byron Center schools among 46 districts across the state. East Grand Rapids uses the city's public safety department to conduct regular searches on its high school campus.
Records obtained by MLive and the Grand Rapids Press under the Freedom of Information Act show the findings by dogs at area schools are relatively low compared to overall student population, but educators believe the more vigilant they are, the better for students.
The public records request showed the discovery of more than 86 prohibited substances or items at the area schools that have used Interquest since 2011. Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana or drug paraphernalia were the most common finds, but dogs also alerted to fireworks and a toy cap gun among other items banned from school property.
The dogs have come up with 28 student code violations at the six Forest Hills high and middle schools, the most in the region. Canine searches at Grandville revealed 26 hits, Kentwood with 22, 10 at Byron Center and Rockford with two. East Grand Rapids searches found no substances or weapons.
There is no mandate for documenting details of what the dogs find and district record-keeping varies, making complete comparisons between districts difficult. The figures also don't include items found by security staff or administrators during the year.
Part of today's school climate
While the searches, such as a Thursday, Oct. 30, check at Forest Hills Central High, are performed randomly, they shouldn't come as a surprise.
Schools hold student assemblies to explain where dogs will likely search, where they cannot search - privacy protections state individual students can not be a target - and about how punishments can run from detention to suspension if substances are found. Parents have been told about the inspections in newsletters and at parent-teacher organization meetings. Byron Center sends a video message to students and their families to notify them.
"It’s not about busting them, it’s about them not having it," Byron Center High School Principal Scott Joseph said.
Administrators and the canine handlers contend the searches are fair and accurate, and fall into an overall security and safety plan, but the American Civil Liberties Union isn't completely on board. The group contends false positives can disrupt students' lives.
“It turns students into suspects in a place where we should be nurturing them and focusing on their learning,” said Marc Allen, of the ACLU of Michigan. “There are ways to do a search that are more narrow and don’t implicate people’s privacy rights.”
Forest Hills Central Principal Steve Passinault said the searches are part of creating a caring atmosphere.
“We want kids to be successful here and we want them to feel that being safe and secure in their environment is very important,” Passinault said. “They don’t want illegal substances in their building. They want a safe environment and they know that by doing these searches, it helps us reach that goal.”
Noses to the ground
East Kentwood, Rockford and Forest Hills Northern and Central high schools have already experienced the fishing expeditions this fall.
The searches play out as students sit behind closed classroom doors. At one inspection at North Rockford Middle School last spring, three golden retrievers and their handlers quietly roamed the halls sniffing lockers, garbage cans, water fountains and display cases in addition to the nooks and crannies of buildings.
On this day, "Murphy" is led by Kim Heys, who owns the Michigan Interquest franchise. The 5-year-old canine rolled through the halls with his nose to the ground until he picked up a suspicious scent inside a locker and sat down next to it. Heys rewarded him with a toy and a school security officer opened the door.
Heys pulled out a small container labeled “pseudo heroin” and sealed it in a plastic bag. The imitation narcotic was one of several substances she and the other handlers had planted prior to the search to be sure the canines are performing.
Heys said the searches don't interfere with school activities and the students accept the animals as part of a normal day.
School leaders say they try to use the measured discipline when items that shouldn't be at school are located. Sometimes it's prescribed medication that hasn't gone through proper school protocol and other times the dogs have found hunting firearms inadvertently left in cars.
“When you’re in a situation like that, you have to use common sense,” Grandville High School Principal Chris VanderSlice said. “Those aren’t the situations we’re trying to catch.”
And when illegal substances are found, it's more about intervention than punishment even though consequences routinely follow based on the degree of violation.
East Kentwood Superintendent Mike Zoerhoff, whose district has handed down Saturday schools and suspensions for substance violations, noted that discoveries have fallen since 2011, when there were 12. In 2012, the dogs made eight hits and last year, only two.
“We are proud of the steady decline in discipline over the last three years and it appears that the canine searches are accomplishing what we had hoped,” he said.
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/11/west_michigan_school_districts_9.html
