drug search at school

[hahaRainbow]

Is this legal? my ds has come home from school (state comp) where (he says) during a science class, a teacher arrived announcing that 'this is a drug free school and now we are going to have the sniffer dogs in'.

Apparently the kids were then lined up while a dog ran up and down sniffing them and another dog sniffed the classroom.

of course I'm not happy about drugs at school but I do wonder about the legalities of this and what IF a kid had been caught.... am I wrong to be worried?

You really think that having police enter the classrooms with sniffer dogs, get the children to stop what they are doing and line up, so they can be scrutinised, and then removed if they get a finger pointed at them, is the only way of dealing with this Callooh?

Sniffer dogs operate quite well without having a line of people.
There are ways of separating children off which don't involve that awful "waiting for your turn will it be me" axe to fall, not so public.
The teachers will likely know who is involved and existing procedures allow for action to be taken including contacting the police / searching.
An open door policy will mean that children are more confident to come forward and talk about what's going on

etc

I mean there's loads of things that don't involve this awful idea of lining up and then being taken away which is just, god it makes me squirm. And there will be children who have a healthy fear of "the authorities" for good reason and this will be just awful for them.

I just think maybe some on here lack imagination about what life is like for some children and how this type of attention in the middle of school will feel to them, how it will affect their feelings about school.

For some children it will be the place that they feel safe and that will be removed.

There are better ways IMO.

I suppose it depends whether you think inculcating a culture of fear in a school environment is a positive thing or not.

That is maybe another reason for the differences of opinion.

If you think that authoritarian = good and "the authorities" behave fairly then you probably think well OK.

If you have experiences that mean you think the authorities do not behave fairly then you are less likely to think well OK. And if you believe that school should be, I don't know, safe and caring rather than "do as you're told".

This is a right / left conversation coloured by people's experiences maybe.

pilchard
this awful idea of lining up and then being taken away which is just, god it makes me squirm.
The only person with this idea is you
Nobody else has mentioned it.
OP has not mentioned it.
Those of us who have kids in schools with drug searches have not mentioned it.
It is not how it happens

Get over your paranoia and remember that this is the UK school and police systems we are talking about.

That's what the OP posted about. Surely we're all posting in response to what she described.

It's that aspect that has been my entire objection all the way through.

Other people have had other objections, I can't speak for them.

I've just listed 4 other ways Callooh

Your "oho what would you do then eh??" posts do seem to imply that you can't see any ways other than lining people up as per the OP.

I disagree with that, that's all.

Bloody hell you're like a dog with a bone.

If you can't see any other way to deal with the problem of drugs in schools than having the police come into classrooms, have everyone line up, and then be checked by the authorities and removed if they fail whatever the criteria are then that's your lookout.

I don't like it. That's my lookout. And I'm perfectly entitled to hold that view.

You think that sniffer dogs in schools is not an effective approach then?

Make your mind up.

Is it the scaring the pants off some of the children bit that's so appealing then?

pilchard
You have not said how you would deal with it.
Its a fair question that deserves a fair answer.

If sniffer dogs are not the right way, what is ?

"This is a right / left conversation coloured by people's experiences maybe."

You have hit the nail on the head there.

TalkingPeace for the 82nd time I do not disagree with sniffer dogs in schools!

FGS I am reading all your posts, seems that the people on the "other side" of the conversation can't actually be bothered to read what people who have views they have decided are "wrong" are actually saying.

What does that say I wonder.

You just disagree with the sniffer dogs identifying those who are carrying drugs...?

pilchard
So the bit you have a problem with is your confabulation about kids being dragged out of a line - which will never happen as its not how the searches are done.

I disagree with the scenario described in the OP.

As I explained quite carefully in my first post.

It's not my fault if people can't be bothered to read other people's posts, and ascribe positions to them that they don't actually hold. And then challenge them to defend the positions that they don't actually hold

Some people are a bit thick is the conclusion I'm coming to here. Don't read what's written, don't bother to try and engage with points raised, just decide randomly that someone things X, Y and Z, and then shout at them about it.

Yup - sounds like it's the fictitious notion of kids being dragged off by the gestapo that's the problem.

Some people are a bit thick is the conclusion I'm coming to here.

I've come to the same conclusion but possibly not for the same reasons you have.

I posted earlier:

it's only the child's view of what happened so i imagine the "lining up" is somewhat less dramatic than it sounds.

I bet they weren't scrutinised. These dogs are very very clever, they don't need to have more than a single sniff. If there is no scent there, they simply move on.

I'm responding to what the OP wrote. She said the police came into the classroom, the children were told to line up, they were checked with a dog.

I said that made me feel deeply uncomfortable. But that I didn't disagree with sniffer dogs in schools.

Which has led to me being rounded on and asked to justify my position. Which I have done at length multiple times, explaining why I have a problem with the approach in the OP. Now, after toing and froing, people are suddenly "oh well if it's the lining up thing that doesn't happen anyway". Right.

In fact you talkingpeace when I said some children would have bad connotations about being made to line up and be checked by the authorities because not all countries have authorities who are reasonable, you said something along the lines of "well this is the UK what has happened in other countries shouldn't impact on what happens here" so I think this sudden "oh that wouldn't happen anyway" is a bit disingenuous honestly given earlier comments.

Callooh *sniffer dogs in schools" FFS you just aren't bothering to read anything are you.

This was my first post on the thread:

"I would not be at all happy about this. Lining children up and searching them (whether by hand or by nose) is really just not on.

And it's not the same as the dog being around in the airport I've never been told to "line up". That's got really nasty connotations. People being lined up and then singled out, taken away, has really bad overtones.

If they just took the dog into the school and around the place that would be OK by me, the idea of making people line up and then systematically searching them just makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable on quite a visceral level.

They have sniffer dogs at my work they randomly sniff around it's fine. They don;t say right you you you line up against the wall there you will be searched."

It would be great if some of you bothered to read it.

Jesus christ.