No More Drug Sniffing Dogs
In Spokane ,Washington, one school district has temporarily stopped using drug sniffing dogs in their schools. Interquest Detection Canines, a company that trains security and detections dogs, says that drug sniffing dogs are used in 1,200 schools across the county. In this case however, both students and parents believe that the dogs trample on the civil rights of the students.
The Superintendent of the District says, “We believed we were operating with total respect to students’ constitutional rights. Never once did we randomly search a child with a drug dog. We searched lockers, or items left in vacant classrooms. Not one time did a dog sniff a student. We were extremely careful about that.”
A spokesman from the Civil Liberty group opposes the District and offer this explanation, “We support…efforts to keep schools drug free, but we have an issue of them using dogs as a tool in the fight,” he said. “Dogs are costly and inefficient and ineffective, and their constitutionality is in question.”
