Drugs dogs in school!

[HappilyHadesBound]

For background, my daughter is disabled and has a lot of medication as a result.

Apparently there is a significant problem in the town my children attend school with cocaine being used and sold by teenagers. As a result, the school today (and without warning to parents) brought in the police with drugs dogs. They did whole year assemblies and during hers my daughter was picked out by the dog.

It was all sorted out with the policeman afterwards with no issue, she had some Co-codamol with her which is prescribed by the doctor for her, and the staff are happy too.

The problem is that her entire year group of more than 300 kids (as well as staff) witnessed this! I'm devastated for her. She gets bullied already for so many reasons, and now the kids all think she's a druggie and the comments she's had today are horrific!

AIBU to say that this was completely inappropriate of school to do? I can understand their reasoning for not informing parents, but they could at least warned families like ours.

I'll reiterate that I'm completely confident she is not on illegal drugs, but she's devastated about this.

Your poor daughter .

I don’t think the school should have given any parents prior warning for this, but if they know that some children bring medication to school they could have excused them from the assembly.

Surely it would be less embarrassing to have the dogs sniff them separately (obviously after asking them to put their approved medication to one side).

Yes, that would've been a much better suggestion!

If the school were aware that she carries co-codamol on her and that it would produce a response from the detection dogs (I would have thought police would tell them what the dogs detect?) then, yes, they could have gone to her that morning and asked her to hand them over for safekeeping.
But I don't think it's unacceptable for the school to have done a surprise drugs sniff at all.
But, again, if they had thought about it, they'd have maybe realised your daughter would have been stopped at.

Yes they know all about her medication. I don't know if it would still be detected that she'd taken it even if she didn't have any in her pocket?

Yes, they really should have thought that one through. Especially if they are aware of the medication she is prescribed. Does she take it in every day? Do they know when she takes it?

I understand the concept but jesus. They're asking for trouble aren't they?

Not every day but as required, they're very aware of her condition and medication.

How old is she? Do they allow the students to keep medication on them rather than leave it at the office in case it is needed? We were never allowed more than paracetamol on our person at high school. I'm just wondering if it didn't cross there minds to keep her out of the way of the drugs dog as they didn't know she would have that medication on her. If they did know then yes they should have kept her out the way of the dog.

They can't tell select families in advance. What if you had tipped off another family, or what if someone found out you knew (then you could also look guilty to the other students). It seems a bit of a lose lose situation here. I agree, they could have taken her out of assembly prior to the dog search, and been searched separately without her prescribed medications

Does medication not need to be kept in the office / medical room so they wouldn't have known she had it in her?

She's 16, so not exactly little. She managed all her own medication exceptionally responsibly, and they know she carries it because it's not always easy for her to get to the medical room- although she goes there when needed if she has to come home or if she's not got anything with her.

Why would a dog be trained to sniff out co-codamol?

It has codeine, it's an opioid.

And the school allows your child to keep opioids about her person, instead of in the school office?

That's terribly lax, especially in a school that has such a big drug problem

I thought sniffer dogs only detected class A drugs ,l guess they could have taken your daughters pills off of her if they knew she had them .

Wouldn't the co-codamol have been sealed in blister packs & therefore be undetectable.

A reasonable adjustment for her disability.

Only if the pack was unused

Well now the other students know she carries drugs albeit a legal ones with a prescription I would advise her to be very careful they dont "go missing" especially if the school has a drug problem.

The amount she'd have on her each day wouldn't be enough to do anything with.

I would have thought dogs can smell things through blister packs. I mean drugs dogs manage to find drugs hidden in all sorts of places with all sorts of high tec attempts to disguise them from the dogs. If all it takes is blister packs someone ought to tell the Mexican Cartels it will save them a lot of bother.

They're also not somewhere easily accessible to others, not in her bag for example where it is put down on the floor etc.

I work in a school and the police quite often plant drugs for the dogs to find as part of a demonstration. Usually the police know who they are targeting and have found illegal substances - to cut the dealers off at source. I’m sure your DD wasn’t on their hot list.

She may be embarrassed and it just shows how the dogs work.

Why not ring up and ask them to speak to and reassure your DD?

Eh? Well they could sell it for a start.

The teachers have been great about it, the problem is the other pupils- they're horrific enough to her as it is, but today has been awful for her.

@CheezePleeze 2-4 tablets of a weak strength that you can buy over the counter?