LSC discusses dog sniffing for drugs

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - The Lafayette School Corporation (LSC) discussed having a trained dog search for weapons and drugs while students are in school at its school board meeting Monday night.

Currently, LSC allows a trained dog to sniff the school parking lot and inside the schools, including students' lockers, after school hours. Talk began last year to change language in student handbooks so students would be aware the corporation could conduct random searches with a police canine during school hours, but some parents and board members don't want to see the policy adjusted.

"Quite frankly, I'm not sure that we really need to be taking this route," LSC Board of Trustee Bob Stwally said. "I think there are probably other things that we could do that would be just as effective. Again, that is a decision the board has made collectively as a unit."

The random searches would be for students in fifth through twelfth grades. That would mean Sunnyside Middle, Tecumseh Junior High and Jefferson High Schools would all be eligible for random canine searches. Students would be notified and place their coats and backpacks outside their lockers. They would then go back to class while the trained, no-bite police dog and officer searched for weapons and drugs.

"There would try to be an isolation of the children and the procedure. They would ask the children to put their coats and backpacks out in the hall. The kids would remain in the classroom and kind of a door is shut situation. Then they would run the dogs through. We are doing the best we can to still maintain some separation of the two," Stwally explained.

LSC parent Anthony Poore told the school board he was concerned about a dog searching during school hours. His youngest daughter doesn't attend a school that could be searched, but he said she has been attacked by four dogs and is scared of almost any dog.

"If it is any bigger than a Chihuahua, she runs the other way. I'm pretty confident she will run from school," Poore said.

Poore doesn't think having a no-bite dog searching the schools will make much of a difference.

"Kids tend to try to push the boundaries a little more. I just don't think we should expose them to that extra danger," Poore said.

The board will vote on this at its next meeting.