School administrators, law enforcement and even some students and parents say random school-wide drug sweeps by police are no big deal, but some civil liberty advocates disagree.
Last week, a pair of drug-sniffing dogs and their handlers went through Oceanside High School East in Rockland to check lockers and backpacks. The only contraband found was tobacco product on one student, who was issued a summons to appear in court for possession of tobacco by a minor.
Courts have ruled such searches are constitutional, but the actions are questioned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine
Zachary Heiden, legal director for the American Civil Liberties of Maine, said the organization disagrees with such searches.
“We think it’s a troubling message to send to students about privacy and that they are presumed guilty until they are proven not guilty,” Heiden said.
The ACLU of Maine does not have statistics on how often such searches are conducted, but the organization is made aware from time to time of these school and police actions.
“The fact that these searches are legal should be the starting point of a discussion by the community rather than the end,” Heiden said.
He urged any parent or student who is concerned by the searches to go to the board and express those sentiments.
The Maine Department of Education does not offer advice to districts on such matters and does not keep records of how many searches are conducted, education department communications director Samantha Warren said.
Maine School Management Association will provide school districts, at their requests, a sample policy and sample procedure for doing searches, according to Victoria Wallack, MSMA director of government relations and communications.
Marty Bouchard, president-elect of the Maine Principals’ Association, said police sweeps of schools are local decisions. He said the issue has not come up at the association level for a discussion.
Bouchard said the last such search at the Houlton Junior Senior High School, where he is principal, was three years ago.
Oceanside student leaders contacted after the Dec. 4 search in Rockland voiced support for the action.
Walker Ranney, president of the senior class, said he was glad the school took the action. He said the search was done to make sure the school was safe. He said while several students raised privacy issues, he pointed out that only one backpack was searched.
Ranney said he believes Oceanside East is a safe school and he does not think there is a drug problem within the school.
“This is a very clean school,” Ranney said.
Cassie Butler, a sophomore representative for the student senate, said she also supports the search.
The search shows that the principal is serious in making sure the school is free of drugs, Butler said.
Steve Roberts, chairman of the Regional School Unit 13 board that includes Oceanside, said he does not see the search “as that big a deal.”
“I think it’s more interesting that the media is making it a big deal,” Roberts said. “People who are complaining are reliving their high school years.”
He said society allows for such actions to keep people safe. He said people going through airports are searched. He pointed out he returned from a cruise last weekend and a drug-sniffing dog was checking out luggage.
The school’s responsibility is to keep students safe when they are in school, he said, and this is one way to ensure that. There is no violation of students’ privacy rights, he maintained, saying they are made aware of the policy that allows searches of lockers.
The RSU 13 board approved a policy in January 2012 that gives the principals authority to have police brought in to conduct such searches. He said a dog sniffing a backpack is not a search. But if the dog detects something, that creates probable cause for a search of a backpack, he continued.
Board member Carol Bachofner of Rockland said she will call for a review of the district’s policy on such searches by the board’s policy committee. Bachofner said she opposes such searches because it diminishes the trust with the students.
She has called for the board to review the policy. The policy committee has agreed to review the policy in January.
Roberts said a board member should not criticize an administrator for carrying out a policy approved by the board. He also pointed out that Bachofner voted for the policy two years ago, which allows the principal to have such searches conducted.
“I ought not to have voted that way,” Bachofner said Thursday.
Sgt. John Palmer of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office said he had conducted two searches in schools this year with his trained canine and that more schools want them done.
“Yes, for the most part, but politics play a part in the decision,” he said of school administrators making such requests.
Maine Public Safety spokesman Stephen McCausland said the state police assist schools by doing about a dozen searches each year.
“I imagine that as much is accomplished when nothing is found than when something is,” McCausland said of making sure schools are drug-free.
Elaine Nutter, superintendent for the Five-Town Community School District that oversees Camden Hills Regional High School in Camden, said there was one search by police last year. The principal will consult with the superintendent before the search, she said.
“The pro of having random searches is that it provides parents and the community as a whole with assurance that the schools are safe and drug-free places and reinforces to students that the school is serious,” Nutter said.
The superintendent said it is human nature for young people test the boundaries occasionally, and it is up to the adults to provide clear boundaries and structures to protect them while they are still developing good decision-making skills.
RSU 13 and the Five-Town CSD have written policies on such searches. The Five-Town policy states student use of all school storage facilities, including lockers, desks and the parking lot, is a privilege granted to students. As a privilege, the school is authorized to inspect all personal property in those areas at any time.
At Thursday night’s RSU 13 board meeting, the first since the search, two parents spoke out on the issue — one in support and one in opposition.
Jennifer Garrett said she supports the principal calling for the police search but said it be should done so students are allowed to have their books and laptops, otherwise the 45 minutes that the search took is lost instruction time.
Parent Nathan Davis told the board he was concerned about the search. He said a central value to democracy was respect for rights and argued this was not teaching that.