Drug Dog Misses Start of the School Year

[SmokeWeed]

As Porter Creek Secondary School students returned to class Thursday, they might have been disappointed after expecting to be greeted at the school by a puppy.

"They certainly were excited about it," Kerry Huff, the school's principal, said in an interview Wednesday. "They're expecting ( the dog ) to be here."

The school received about $250,000 from the territorial government to establish a three-year Dogs for Drug Free Schools pilot program.

The approval for the program came after the school council brought up Medicine Hat Police Service Sgt. Randy Youngman, who heads up Dogs for Drug Free Schools in the Alberta community. Youngman brought Fiddler up with him as well, one of two dogs that work with the program there.

Under it, dogs like Fiddler go to school through the day with police officers who work in the high schools. The dogs are trained to identify the smell of drugs in a locker or backpack, and serve as a bridge between police and students.

While the dogs don't search lockers, they're trained to show the officer when they sense drugs. From there, the school and officers can assess whether to proceed with a search.

In the Yukon's case, Huff said, a handler will take on the role the police officer normally does in schools in Medicine Hat.

For now, the Porter Creek program is stalled as a committee made up of Huff, two school council members, two parents and two students work on coming up with a job description for the dog handler.

Huff is hopeful the job can be posted within the next couple of weeks.

There are also issues around liability and who will own the dog, which are being worked out as well, Huff said.

It will likely be October by the time the puppy is introduced to the school, though, as Huff pointed out, that could change.

The committee, he stressed, wants to make sure everything is done right to ensure the program can be a success.

In addition to the $250,000 to be spent on the program over three years, a local service club has offered to pay for the purchase of the dog.


Newshawk: Stoner4Life - 420 Magazine
Source: Whitehorse Star (CN YK)
Pubdate: Fri, 08 Sep 2006
Author: Stephanie Waddell
Copyright: 2006 Whitehorse Star
Contact: letters@whitehorsestar.com
Website: Whitehorse Star Online