Head of Montreal area high school defends use of drug-sniffing dogs

Head of Montreal area high school defends use of drug-sniffing dogs
8 hours ago

MONTREAL — The head of a high school north of Montreal says she was within her rights to call in a sniffer dog from a private security firm to deal with a drug problem.

Tim, the drug-sniffing canine, made his first visit to check out lockers and toilets at the Ecole polyvalente Saint-Jerome last Friday but students knew he was going to be on the prowl.

Despite the advanced warning, three students were found to be in possession of small quantities of cannabis, hash, ecstasy and speed during the dog's visit, said school director France Trudeau.

Trudeau said she doesn't plan to turn the students over to authorities.

"We're going to see what help we can offer them," she said in an interview Monday.

The search by the unidentified private security firm comes as the Supreme Court of Canada deliberates whether police can make unannounced searches in schools, even at the invitation of a principal.

Trudeau acknowledged police can't be called in to the school unless they have an arrest warrant.

But she said the school can act on its own.

"When it comes to school, we replace parental authority and to maintain a secure milieu, we can do it," Trudeau said.

"The dog is an additional tool we're using in our policy of zero tolerance of drugs and alcohol."

A 1998 Supreme Court decision granted extra leeway to principals and teachers to search students to protect their health and safety.

But the high court also defined some guidelines for a reasonable search, such as having reasonable and probable grounds that the student broke school rules, and that a search would prove the violation.

The case currently in front of the Supreme Court involves a school in Sarnia, Ont., where police showed up with a drug-sniffing dog.

The court will decide whether the unannounced police visit to St. Patrick's high school in November 2002 amounted to an unreasonable search and seizure under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The high court will help determine whether police can use sniffer dogs to conduct random searches of schools and other public places, such as parks, sports stadiums, beaches and malls.

The court heard during a hearing last year that the dog's handler in the Sarnia case had no grounds for getting a search warrant and no knowledge of the presence of drugs in the school.

But police had a long-standing invitation from the principal to come with their dog.

Trudeau said the idea behind her search was to help students and make it complicated for suppliers who try to get drugs into schools.

"It's not the students who are the most dangerous, the most difficult to deal with," she said.

"It's those who are outside the school, the adult sellers around high schools."

Trudeau said Ecole polyvalente Saint-Jerome is not the first school to use sniffer dogs from the private firm, which she would not identify.

Trudeau stressed that she didn't want students to be surprised to see dogs sniffing around the school.

"In January, we informed all our personnel and they were trained by the sniffer dog's handlers," Trudeau said.

"And all the students were met and informed that we were putting this measure in place."

"When we hired the company, we asked them what they had done.

"What I've heard is that it was positive in the other schools and they reduced the level of drug sales and the risk of selling inside schools."

Trudeau added that, over the past two years, drug use has been going down at the school, which is located about 50 kilometres north of Montreal.

The project was approved by the local school board in December.

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Do you think that schools should be allowed to hire drug sniffing dogs?

Does it surprise you that the school is not calling the police?

Do you think that police should be called in any drug posession related school incident? What about posession with intent to sell?

What do you think the school should do with the kids?

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