PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A California district will deploy drug-detecting dogs at its schools as a result in a 17 percent spike in drug and alcohol-related suspensions in the 2009-10 school year.
The dogs will be positioned around middle schools and high schools in the Palm Springs Unified School District. The searches will concentrate on randomly chosen classrooms and parking lots, MyDesert.com reports. The drug detection dogs will sniff backpacks and personal belongings; however, they will not be allowed to search individual students.
District officials expect the dogs to be in schools by December. The dogs will conduct 40 searches in 10 of the district’s schools. The $12,000 program will be paid for by the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program.
