Drug Sweep at High School

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Our local high school recently did a drug sweep complete with dogs, etc. Students were held in lock down in their 2nd hour class for an hour and a half.</p>

<p>**“The bust was long overdue,” said ABCDEFG, a resident and mother of a school graduate.</p>

<p>She e-mailed her compliments to the police as news of the raid spread around town.</p>

<p>“Too much has gone on for too long,” ABCDEFG continued. “This had to be dealt with. Perhaps now, this very serious issue will, in fact, be taken very seriously by all.”**</p>

<p>“Officers found a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia, including a pipe fashioned from a plastic bottle, in four lockers and two vehicles. There were no arrests.”</p>

<p>Very serious issue my behind - What a waste of time!</p>

2

<p>Hmm. I’m intrigued to see this covered as news. These kinds of raids are commonplace around here (rural-almost-suburban Maryland). </p>

<p>Sometimes the police come on tips. Sometimes it’s spontaneous.
Sometimes they find stuff, sometimes they don’t.
Really, it’s considered as routine as a fire drill.</p>

3

<p>^It was the same at my high school…except we didn’t get locked down for it. We didn’t even know when they happened.</p>

<p>My senior year I left my Economics class to go to the restroom, and to get my notes from my locker (with teacher’s permission). The police dog had found something in the locker beneath mine and they made me prove that it was in fact the top locker that was mine (all I had to do was open it).</p>

<p>I do know that they’d be mad if we were locked down, but otherwise it’s just not a big deal.</p>

4

<p>The police dogs radomly come to my D’s upper middle class public hs. During the fall half of her ceramics class was busted by the drug dog. D said that these kids were known potheads and many came to class high after lunch. They picked the wrong day to get high at lunch time this particular time.</p>

5

<p>

But - the search may have given some reassurance to the parents and students that there’s not a serious drug problem at that school.</p>

6

<p>They do drug searches in our county schools all the time too and then they post in the paper that they (usually) did not find anything.</p>

7

<p>This was the first ever at our suburban Detroit high school.</p>

<p>I am oddly reassured by the others here that mention they do it on a regular basis in their communities.</p>

<p>In my experience, usually everyone at a school knows, or at least has a good idea, who the dopers are. High school kids are pretty stupid when it comes to hiding anything.</p>

8

<p>I am a very small, rural, mid-west school, ~285 in grades 7-12. Every student who does any activity, and this includes band, cheerleading, sports, or any club, must consent at the beginning of the year to being drug-tested at random intervals. The county sheriff department also arrives, with drug dog, at various times throughout the year. I’m not sure they lock down the classrooms, but the lockers and cars are checked out by the dog.</p>

9

<p>First time? Wow. My school had a random sweep about once a month with drug dogs. They pick “random” classes at “random” times.</p>

10

<p>My school has one random drug search every year. </p>

<p>One. </p>

<p>But it just became obvious to everyone going on senior trip that they think we’re all drug using/alcoholic idiots.</p>

<p>They’re doing a mandatory bag search for everyone going on the trip. As in both male and female teachers searching through our bras and underwear…and tampons/pads, and other personal products to make sure we’re not bringing “alcohol.”</p>

<p>We’re not allowed to bring our own drinks on the bus either. Because they might be “alcohol.”</p>

<p>According to the teacher running the trip: “We have to make sure you guys don’t do stupid stuff in New York. Drinking is illegal for people your age.”</p>

<p>First off, DUHHHHHH.</p>

<p>Second off, thanks for the trust lady. </p>

<p>It ****ed everyone off. Like really, there are only thirty kids going, most are good kids. </p>

<p>Everyone was FLOORED when she said that. She basically called us “stupid.”</p>

<p>I’ve been on over thirty school trips. Many overnight. I’ve NEVER seen a bag search before. </p>

<p>I mean, it’s like one step forward, two steps back with these people. I’m 18, a senior, and I feel like I’m back in middle school where “no hugging” was law. </p>

<p>I can’t bring my own drinks on the trip. We have to hope they bring enough for the whole trip. </p>

<p>I don’t even wanna know about aspirin. I’m pretty sure the rule is “No pills. Period.” even though I have chronic headaches.</p>

<p>I’ll have to hide mine somewhere, like my change purse. </p>

<p>Because there’s no way they’ll allow me to bring my own aspirin if I can’t bring my own drinks…</p>

<p>I’ll “abuse” it by doing “stupid stuff.” </p>

<p>And there’s no way they’ll give any to me, so I’ll just have to hide it somewhere. >></p>

<p>-deep breath-</p>

<p>A few more weeks…</p>

<p>Just a few more weeks before I’m free of these people forever…</p>

<p>Best day of my life…</p>

11

<p>Amazed that is the first time the school has has a drug sweep. my kids are 3 and 6 years out of HS and they had random drug sweeps, where they brought in drug sniffing dogs, back when they were in middle school and high school. And we live in a small town (around 27,000 population) about 100 miles from the nearest big city.</p>

<p>I remember my then freshman daughter being very thankful they didn’t have a drug sweep the day she complained about being cold in class and a class mate lent her his hoody. She put her hands in the pouch pocket, felt something odd in there and, right in the middle of class, pulled a joint out of the pocket. Always wondered if a drug dog would have alerted on her even though she immediately took off the hoody and gave it back.</p>

12

<p>I’ve heard of drug sweeps happening theoretically, but I’ve never met anyone who’s ever actually had one. Unless there’s credible evidence that a large percentage of the student body has drugs, this seems like a complete waste of time. 4 kids out of hundreds, if not thousands, have pot in their lockers? Wow, that’s really shocking news. Can the other thousand get back to learning now?</p>

13

<p>The sweeps are not disruptive. I used to work in the local middle school and they would make some announcement that Mr. Soandso was in the building. That was the code to lock classroom doors and not let kids out of the room. They walked through the school with dogs. In the high schools they check the parking lots too. That was almost ten years ago.</p>

14

<p>I live in Maryland and there were never any sweeps at my D’s schools. I didn’t even know they did them in the counties. I learned something.</p>

15

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<p>Interesting - is it legal to search a vehicle that is likely in the school’s publicly accessible parking lot?</p>

16

<p>Harford County has been doing it for years. No gifted education though.</p>

17

<p>There have certainly been searches at our public high school. I will even go so far as to say that, before boarding coach buses for a several day school-sponsored trip, we’ve had the dogs come in and check the luggage before it is loaded on the bus. Unfortunately I don’t think the dogs can detect alcohol.</p>

18

<p>Maybe they were training the dogs? That seems like an unbelievable low yield.</p>

<p>Searches were ongoing at my kid’s school. She watched a classmate get arrested one lunch period. They must have been monitoring the parking lot; he was pushed against the wall as he reentered school. She was able to watch kid get cuffed up close, as the wall was plate glass and she and lunchmates were on the other side.</p>

19

<p>cartera, Carroll has been doing it for at least 10 years. We don’t have a county police force; just the State Troopers. And, the Trooper academy is located (not kidding) 1.5 miles from the high school. So, part of me thinks we get extra searches due to our proximity. OK by me.</p>

20

<p>Your DARE dollars at work. They do it about once a year with dogs at random in my kids’ high school. They do the cars out in the parking lot, too (at least the dogs sniff and the cops look in the cars. My freshman son hadn’t secured his locker and they went through his backpack and left him a note. He was shocked and angry and felt violated and I had to carefully remind him that the school rules are the lockers are to be locked. But inside I was pretty darn angry. Makes the kids absolutely nuts. The only consolation is they also “do” the teachers parking lot. I’ve never heard that they have found anything over the course of the 7 years I’ve had kids in that high school. They also used to have a police person in the schools which I thought was a waste of police power for 800 kids, but apparently the budget got cut and that position is not longer filled.</p>