No Warrant, No Problem: Students’ Lockers Searched at Random By Drug Dogs

Students
at various public schools in West Michigan are subjected to random
searches performed by a specialty canine unit that uncovers
dangerous contraband in kids’ lockers. Really scary stuff, like
hunting gear, pocketknives, fire crackers, prescription medication.
Maybe a
gun-shaped Pop-Tart or two.

According to
mlive.com:

The dogs, which are trained to find drugs, alcohol, gun
powder-based products, tobacco and medications, also are used
locally in Grandville, Forest Hills, East Kentwood and Byron Center
schools among 46 districts across the state. East Grand Rapids uses
the city’s public safety department to conduct regular searches on
its high school campus.

Records obtained by MLive and the Grand Rapids Press under the
Freedom of Information Act show the findings by dogs at area
schools are relatively low compared to overall student population,
but educators believe the more vigilant they are, the better for
students.

The public records request showed the discovery of more than 86
prohibited substances or items at the area schools that have used
Interquest since 2011. Alcohol, tobacco and marijuana or drug
paraphernalia were the most common finds, but dogs also alerted to
fireworks and a toy cap gun among other items banned from school
property.

The searches are performed at random, meaning that no single
student is ever the target. Administrators hold this up as good and
fair—we are trampling your rights, but it’s not
personal!—but the ACLU is skeptical:

“It turns students into suspects in a place where we should be
nurturing them and focusing on their learning,” said Marc Allen, of
the ACLU of Michigan. “There are ways to do a search that are more
narrow and don’t implicate people’s privacy rights.”

I can think of no better way to prepare children to accept the
police state with open arms than to begin subjecting them to
completely undeserved searches in their formative years. These
searches teach them that they have no privacy—there is no place the
authorities can’t touch. They have no right to question or resist.
They need not have done anything wrong. Dubious safety
concerns—seize
the fishing knives!—will always trump common sense.

It’s true that some students bring prohibited substances onto
school property. Of course, so do the dogs’ handlers:

On this day, “Murphy” is led by Kim Heys, who owns the Michigan
Interquest franchise. The 5-year-old canine rolled through the
halls with his nose to the ground until he picked up a suspicious
scent inside a locker and sat down next to it. Heys rewarded him
with a toy and a school security officer opened the door.

Heys pulled out a small container labeled “pseudo heroin” and
sealed it in a plastic bag. The imitation narcotic was one
of several substances she and the other handlers had planted prior
to the search to be sure the canines are performing.

Safety first, kids.