In another split 3-2 decision, the school board approved a memorandum of understanding between the Redondo Beach Unified School District and the City of Redondo Beach regarding the use of narcotic detector dogs at the high school.
Both board members Todd Loewenstein and Drew Gamet opposed the decision for a second time. Earlier Loewenstein saw constitutional issues with allowing dogs to sniff personal property and fought to push alternative drug prevention methods.
“I think its bad judgment on our part,” said Loewenstein. “We are just showing that we don’t trust kids and it’s a waste of tax payer dollars.”
The service would be no cost to the school district, but the city would have to pay the canine officer, two School Resource officers and a Community Based officer a total of $638.91 for each three hour operation.
The use of drug dogs was debated earlier by a Drug and Alcohol Community Task Force including police officers, community members, school employees, parents and counseling professionals to address the issues surrounding substance abuse. The group was tasked with creating a plan to reduce drug and alcohol use in the community.
Frank DeSena, assistant superintendent, headed the task force. He said that the inspections may not end student drug use entirely but should help prevent some students from being exposed to drug culture.
Before the dogs will be allowed on campus, the district will provide notice to students and parents about the procedures involved in allowing the dogs on campus. However, dates will not be announced ahead of time.
As was discussed in earlier meetings, the dogs would be limited to sniffing lockers and unattended property in open areas at the discretion of district personnel. Earlier meetings argued about the specific areas the dogs could sniff and ruled out vehicles.
Earlier, student school board member Brooke O’Neal said that students were divided about the use of the dogs. She said that limiting the searches to lockers – and not backpacks and cars, as was earlier proposed – made the proposal somewhat more palatable.
According to DeSena, the initial plan was to start using the dogs in January 2012, but the memorandum between the City and School District took longer than expected. The city still needs to sign the document and school officials are hopeful they can use the dogs at least once before the school year is out.
Both Torrance and Manhattan Beach currently use the dogs in their schools. However, instead of using the public police force, Manhattan Beach uses a contractor.
Currently the high school has many programs to fight drugs including a drug counselor, red ribbon week and a voluntary drug-testing program where parents, at their own cost, can opt for a private drug screening for their children with private results.
“There are better ways of enforcing our rules and making sure kids are stay away from drugs,” said Loewenstein. “I hope it’s effective but I don’t think it will be.”
