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?

'Not disagreeing' with sniffer dogs in schools but balking at the prospect of 'lining up' to be sniffed (the horror) could also be said to be rather disingenuous.

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.

This. Pilchard, you nailed it. People are saying you shouldn't worry about being lined up to be shot sniffed at by police dogs if you're not a drug dealer, after all you have nothing to hide so what's your problem?

I would be interested to hear about the neighbourhood served by OP's school. As a pp said, I bet it's not Eton. Children at Eton grow up in a free society. Police do not swarm on them at school. As for children in other neighbourhoods, they grow up in a police state and their parents think that is ok because they will do anything to support the war against drugs.

'randomly sniffing' around a school would be pretty ineffective, particularly as a response to a known problem. Even if it's just a fishing trip, if it's a rare thing (and it sounds like it is) then systematic is the only way to do it efficiently and effectively.

If our local Comp brought police and sniffer dogs into school, it wouldn't' be a school my DS would be attending. Not because I have any issues with the police or sniffer dogs, but what does that say about the school or area!

Kawliga
DDs college that gets regular drug dog visits is in Winchester.
The visits appear random, except that the dogs can spot from up to 15 feet away - they just need to go along a corridor to pick out a room.

I'll be interested to hear from OP as to what actually went on in her son's classroom - because two dogs working at once in one room sounds OTT bearing in mind their sensitivity.

And Pilchard is not the only poster disturbed by this. Other posters have said they would not be ok with this. OP, YANBU.

lucyccfc
you do realise that its the affluent schools that have the biggest drug problems don't you

Lucy that's insanely judgemental and incredibly naive. Our school was great, respectable and in a lovely, quiet part of the country, and yet problems with weed in school (while not an everyday occurrence) were far from unheard of.

is in Winchester

Um, I've never been to Winchester, but if Winchester is like other places in the UK then there are many types of colleges and schools there. Some closer to the Eton end of the scale and some closer to the police-state end of the scale.

So, MN is full of sharp elbowed parents fighting to get their dc into good schools or scraping pennies together to go independent: one of the things they are buying is their dc's right not to be lined up against the wall by police at school - I can't believe how many people on here think this is perfectly normal and ok

UncleT it's not disingenuous. It's what I've said all the way through right from the start.

We have sniffer dogs at work and they just sniff around randomly. That's how it works at airports too. So I assume it is reasonably effective or they wouldn't bother.

"Lewis took up the Headship of Eton College in 1994. Under his Headship, Eton introduced a zero-tolerance policy on illegal drugs, backed up by random testing. He expelled several pupils for drug use."

Did the police swarm in randomly with dogs to line up the little Etonians and sniff at them? No? This just proves Pilchard's point.

kawliga
they are buying is their dc's right not to be lined up against the wall by police at school - I can't believe how many people on here think this is perfectly normal and ok

Where have any of us said that is OK?
Where has anybody said that it happened?

THIS is what the OP actually typed
Apparently the kids were then lined up while a dog ran up and down sniffing them and another dog sniffed the classroom.

note that it starts with apparently and no mention of a wall

PS There is only one state 6th form in Winchester. It has a catchment 50 miles across.

YY the "posher" and private schools that I knew were rife with drugs in my day. Ditto stacks of sex and all sorts of dubious behaviour.

Difference is that parents have more wealth power leverage etc to buy their children out of trouble.

kawliga is correct that the children from Eton, due to no police involvement, will not have had a caution or other criminal action or record, and won't be "in the system". They won't have SS coming to take a look and all the rest of it.

I think people who think that posh/rich people are immune to all this are really naive. So maybe there's a class element here too?

I note a PP keeps referring to "catching drug dealers" seemingly as if they are different beings to the others, but in fact they are also children within the school. Just thinking of them as "drug dealers" and whatever mental image that conjures up is not going to assist with looking at root causes and so on I say again I think it's simplistic.

Some areas the children with drugs in schools are being controlled by extremely scary people outside the schools, there are situations which need a considered approach.

Actually, the way the dogs will check will vary depending on mission, environment and other factors. If you want to see if you have dealers in a boarding school then sure, walk the dog down a corridor past the rooms. If you want to know whether pupils have personal or otherwise smaller amounts of drugs on them, and who in particular does, you will need to get up close on everyone.

So you would advocate for this approach.

You see that's fair enough, if you think it's a good approach that is up to you obviously.

I don't and that is up to me.

It may (may?) be OK in schools in areas where "the authorities" are not viewed with fear and suspicion?

Even then I don't like it, I really don't.

Callooh you went on and on and on at me to say what I would do.
I kept saying, I don't like this (lining up).
You kept on and on and on what would you do then.
I said, well how about this and this.
You said, that's one thing.
I said, no I've written about 4 (you're right I didn't go back and count)
You said, so open door policy what else
I said, read it fgs, I said sniffer dogs
You said, so open door policy what else
I said, read it, sniffer dogs

Then I got a bit annoyed.

And no Pilchard that's categorically not the way it works in airport, with drugs anyway. It might appear random to you but it usually is anything but. Explosives dogs work slightly differently for example, but I doubt you can tell them apart from drugs dogs when you see them. Again, they work in different ways dependant on the aim and the circumstances.

"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"

Is what I said.

Do you want to talk about any of those? Or just keep going on and on with this subtext of "well you haven't got any better ideas" well I am allowed to say I don't think it is right to line people up for scrutinisation of the authorities without actually having an entire drugs policy for schools up my sleeve surely.

I think people who think that posh/rich people are immune to all this are really naive. So maybe there's a class element here too?

Yes, and in the States there's a race element too. Drugs are a huge problem across all sectors of society, rich or poor, all races and social classes. But the ones who are subjected to police-state strategies do not tend to be the privileged neighbourhoods, and instead of protesting against this encroachment, their parents are delighted: 'our dc are not drug dealers so we're delighted for them to be searched'

It is like police stop-and-search powers that disproportionately target certain groups in society. And most people say 'what's the problem if you have nothing to hide why should you mind?' Being stopped and searched on the street as you go about your daily life is not the same as being randomly searched while going through airport security. Same with being at school - I don't see this as the same thing as being searched at the airport.