DOG DRUG SNIFFS TO STOP STATE RULING HALTS MOJAVE SCHOOLS PRACTICE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

MOJAVE - The Mojave Unified School District will halt random checks of students' backpacks using drug-sniffing dogs after a state Attorney General's Office opinion said such searches are unconstitutional.

The Attorney General's Office said making students leave their backpacks so a dog can sniff them conflicts with the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches and seizures, and the the privacy guarantee of the California Constitution.

``We conclude that the proposed random detection program would not survive constitutional scrutiny,'' stated the opinion, issued in November.

The district approved a policy in 1997 to allow drug-sniffing dogs on campuses, but has not used them this year and had no plans to.

The first search was conducted in 1998 at Mojave High School using a California City police dog. It sniffed backpacks and book bags in six classrooms and a wood shop, and students' lockers in the gymnasium and two hallways, but no drugs were found.

Under the district policy, trained dogs were allowed to inspect school rooms, lockers and students' backpacks or book bags but not the students themselves.

In light of the Attorney General's Office opinion, the district will now conduct only individual searches based on reasonable cause, Superintendent Larry Phelps said.

Phelps said the state ruling restricts school administrators' abilities to combat drugs on campus.

``I'm sorry to hear it. I realize they have to give what they feel is the law. I think it ties our hands more and more, and we can do less in school. My interest is having more safety in school,'' Phelps said. ``I don't want to violate the law. I would like to do as much as we can to cut down on drugs and make schools safer.''

The Antelope Valley Union High School District first used drug-sniffing dogs in 1995, when security canines sniffed lockers, classrooms and book bags for drugs at Quartz Hill and Highland high schools but found none.

Since then, the district has conducted searches of school parking lots, the most recent last year, said Linda Solcich, district spokeswoman. The Attorney General's Office opinion does not discuss searches of parking lots.

Palmdale School District trustees at their meeting Tuesday heard a presentation from a San Marino-based canine detection firm that operates on 82 campuses, including Paraclete High School, a private Catholic school in Lancaster.

The firm, Interquest Detection Canines, was invited to make the presentation by board member Tom Lackey, who met company representatives at a California School Boards Association meeting.

Interquest Detection Canines President Scott Edmonds said he disagrees with the Attorney General's Office, saying current case law supports dogs being used in schools to sniff students' packs and bags after students have been separated from them.

Edmonds said he has informed his client school districts of the attorney general's ruling, and the majority of them are ignoring it. The few districts that are abiding by it are letting students remain by their backpacks or have stopped doing classroom sniffs, Edmonds said.

``We're not like the Sheriff's Department. We are not here to bust kids. We come and are just an added tool to determine and deter the presence of contraband on campus,'' Edmonds said. ``We averaged a 42 percent reduction in contraband discipline at the districts that we service.''

Palmdale trustees said they would seek input from school administrators and parents before making any decision on whether to hire Edmonds' firm.

``We need to be concerned about (civil liberties). We also need to be concerned about what's on our campuses. We want to keep our schools as safe and orderly as possible. If this is one way we can identify substances and drugs and contraband on campuses so that we can have it eliminated, I would be supportive,'' said Don Crane, assistant superintendent of pupil services.

The state ruling was crafted in response to a request by then-state Sen. Cathie Wright, R-Simi Valley, who inquired about whether such sniffs and searches are permissible at a public high school.