Desert View High School gets canine once-over
Drug-dog sniffs miff students


Photos by A.E. Araiza / Staff
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/21128drugdogs.html

Handler Heather Dopson and Shadow check the Desert View parking lot for drugs. Some students protested, citing Fourth Amendment protections.

 

 

Dopson, left, introduces Shadow to students Albert Sanchez, 15, Chris Curry, 14, and Ruben Romero, 15. Two Desert View seniors submitted a petition with 320 signatures to the Sunnyside district Governing Board, protesting the searches.


 

 

 

 

Shadow's nose knows

Shadow is a 10-year-old sable German shepherd who retired as a Tucson police narcotics patrol dog four years ago.
He now works for Nightwinds International, a private dog-training company that provides law enforcement agencies with explosive- and drug-sniffing dogs as well as for protection.
"Because of his age, he couldn't serve the patrol function anymore," said Shadow's handler, Heather Dopson.
Nightwinds begins training dogs when they're puppies.
Shadow is trained to sit and bark when he finds the scent of narcotics. All business, he'll refuse to move from the spot until rewarded by Dopson.
"The training is a continuing process," she said. "We train once a week in buildings and vehicles."
At the end of the work day, Shadow is given his favorite toy - a piece of PVC pipe - and goes home with Dopson. "At the end of the day, he's my pet," she said.

 

Jennifer Sterba
By Jennifer Sterba
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A drug-sniffing dog combed staff and student parking lots Wednesday morning at Desert View High School and found nothing but confused and sometimes upset students.

Sunnyside Unified School District suspended 257 students last school year for drug-related offenses. In a letter sent home to parents last month, Assistant Superintendent Alan Storm cited the "national crisis involving drug use among teens" as the motivation behind bringing drug-sniffing dogs onto high school, alternative and middle-school campuses.

But two Desert View High School seniors say the dogs are a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights - namely the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures.The seniors, who submitted 320 signatures to the district's Governing Board two weeks ago protesting the use of dogs, said the searches also violate a few district policies.

One such policy states the district's goal is to enhance the self-image of individual students through helping them feel respected and worthy.

"Being told that we can't be trusted and that we are nothing more than pill-popping, joint-smoking, coke-snorting criminals … does not enhance our self-image, and it definitely doesn't make us feel that we are respected and worthy," Desert View senior Annette Fields, 17, told the Sunnyside school board Tuesday night.

"Instead of being taught to be productive, active and responsible members of society, we are being taught to disregard rights."

Those students want the school board to place the issue on its agenda so board members can respond to the girls' questions in public and possibly reconsider their vote backing the use of drug dogs.

So far, the girls have been able to speak to the board only during its call to the audience in which the law doesn't allow board members to respond. While both Fields and Pamela Vega, also 17, have spoken to the district's Governing Board, other students were taking a seemingly more laissez-faire attitude.

Some students even took time to pet Shadow, a 10-year-old male, sable German shepherd retired from the Tucson Police Department. Fields and Vega said a lot of students are just indifferent. But "it does bother them as an image thing," Fields said. "It gives us a bad rap."

The district said it had 257 suspensions last school year. Fields said that accounts for less than 3 percent of the district's student population - roughly 10,000 students. Desert View's population is about 1,525 students.

Fields and Vega are in the top 10 of their class. Both take advanced placement classes, both are civic-minded. Both spoke at the Governing Board's most recent meeting Tuesday night.

Both plan to attend the University of Arizona in the fall - Fields wants to be an attorney, Vega, a pediatrician.

Regardless of whether the board decides to grant their request, advanced placement government teacher Dorita Brady said she's proud of her students.

Brady's classroom discussions often focus on such current issues as school uniforms and whether the phrase "under God" should be kept in the Pledge of Allegiance.

"Not too many students would be this active," she said. "They researched this on their own time, even on their lunch hours. They're real committed to this cause. They take it really personally that the school board made this decision."

Brady said she's afraid the girls will be disappointed.

She's not the only one. Tucson Unified School District board member-elect Adelita Grijalva happened to be in the school board audience Tuesday night.

"I thought that they presented a valid argument that was well-documented and well-thought out," she said. "I didn't want them to get discouraged if there wasn't a response to their situation."

So Grijalva slipped the girls a note, telling them their arguments would have made her reconsider if not justify her actions as a board member.

Sunnyside board member Eva Dong also complimented the students on their presentation. But she said the board voted on this issue a couple of months ago after careful deliberation.

"Just because we can't stop it 100 percent doesn't mean we shouldn't try," she said. Dong teaches at the Pima County Juvenile Detention Center and often works with teen-agers undergoing drug detoxification.

* Contact reporter Jennifer Sterba at 573-4191 or jsterba@azstarnet.com.

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