Thursday, February 05, 2004
The day the dogs came to school
We planned it for months. The board of ed. approved it but didn't know when. We didn't tell the teachers when it was going to happen. No one knew but the police and the administrators. We looked over all the contingencies; we thought of all that could possible go wrong.
Finally the day came and we had a designated time to begin. The K-9 teams were at the police station waiting for the go-ahead signal. Suddenly I see little three year olds being dropped off by their parents. This was a new twist! We couldn't tell the teacher not to have them there because we would have to let her know why. Well, the time was coming and there was nothing to do. We got the intercoms, the clipboards, the baggies and the gloves to recover contraband, which we hoped we wouldn't find.
8:25 A. M. the announcement was made for a lock-down. It took a few minutes, we made the sweep and an eerie silence fell on the building. The students and teachers had to huddle in a corner with the lights turned off. They locked their doors and pulled down the shades down. Once the halls were clear, we called in the dogs. That is when we informed the school that it was a K-9 search for drugs.
The dogs were very excited and very big. We stayed away from them but kept them in sight. They did not alert on a locker. One dog sniffed out a locker but they thought it was a ham sandwich instead of drugs. They usually bark when they really find something.
The search took 23 minutes. We didn't find anything and the dogs were taken out of the school. The "all clear" announcement was made and the day resumed its normalcy. The kids were asking questions all day, though.
Why did we do it? To let the kids know that they will be at great risk if they try to bring drugs into the school. Does this mean we don't have a drug problem? No. They use at home, at their friends houses, they have the stuff on their persons.
All we can do is prevent it in the school. It's up to the families to change.
Finally the day came and we had a designated time to begin. The K-9 teams were at the police station waiting for the go-ahead signal. Suddenly I see little three year olds being dropped off by their parents. This was a new twist! We couldn't tell the teacher not to have them there because we would have to let her know why. Well, the time was coming and there was nothing to do. We got the intercoms, the clipboards, the baggies and the gloves to recover contraband, which we hoped we wouldn't find.
8:25 A. M. the announcement was made for a lock-down. It took a few minutes, we made the sweep and an eerie silence fell on the building. The students and teachers had to huddle in a corner with the lights turned off. They locked their doors and pulled down the shades down. Once the halls were clear, we called in the dogs. That is when we informed the school that it was a K-9 search for drugs.
The dogs were very excited and very big. We stayed away from them but kept them in sight. They did not alert on a locker. One dog sniffed out a locker but they thought it was a ham sandwich instead of drugs. They usually bark when they really find something.
The search took 23 minutes. We didn't find anything and the dogs were taken out of the school. The "all clear" announcement was made and the day resumed its normalcy. The kids were asking questions all day, though.
Why did we do it? To let the kids know that they will be at great risk if they try to bring drugs into the school. Does this mean we don't have a drug problem? No. They use at home, at their friends houses, they have the stuff on their persons.
All we can do is prevent it in the school. It's up to the families to change.
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