DOG DAYS

Tom Angell sends in this story on yet another high school drug search in Narragansett, Rhode Island. I don't what they expected to find as the school announced the search well in advance. According to Superintendent Pia Durkin:

An informational letter was sent home to parents, and students were informed of the procedure basics in advance of last Friday's search. The information helped to reduce anxiety, said Durkin.

As one would expect the search turned up no contraband, however the dogs did indicate four suspicious lockers.

...while no drugs were found, in one locker, "the smell [of marijuana] was overwhelming," said [Police Chief J. David] Smith. School administrators suspended the locker's owner for three days.

Superintendent Durkin surmised, "The scent in the student's locker was an indication of "residual use," of marijuana." To which we reply, "Baloney. You can't convict in court on the basis of a odor in the absence of other evidence and for all they can prove, it could just have been that new incense the spammers have been promoting that smells just like cannabis."

Not only is the suspension illegal, the search itself hardly seems justified by the results and what do you suppose the students learned while this search was conducted.

Students were on "lockdown" during the searches, for first period classes - a drill procedure that became state mandate in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, and will continue to coincide with the drug searches at the high school.

State mandated drills for safety reasons are one thing but I remember when the only time you heard the word lockdown was in the context of prisons. How will young people learn to respect the system when they are treated like criminals, without just cause? Teenagers know the difference between concern and distrust and respond accordingly.

I've said this before but it's worth repeating. These searches will not deter teenage drug use, they merely create an atmosphere in which a student with a drug problem will fear to ask for help. Unfortunately, Narraganssett plans to conduct these regularly.

Friday's search did run a little over time because of the "learning curve," said Smith, lasting about half an hour, but he expects the random drills to last about 20 minutes in the future. Dogs will search areas like lockers, parking areas, and the faculty lounge, and procedure indicates that only when two dogs positively identify an area will school officials search the area.

They never announce the cost of these fruitless searches but I believe they customarily run into thousands of dollars. That's still your tax money being unwisely spent folks. Busy kids don't do drugs. They would do more to deter drug abuse by using those funds to reinstate extra-curricular activities. Activities that were eliminated by the way, because state's are forced to cut funding for education in order to pay for prisons holding burgeoning populations of non-violent drug offenders.