Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search

LogicSoDeveloped

LogicSoDeveloped

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At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms.

Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows.

But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls.

Drug-free schools are an admirable goal but I wonder when we reached the point where the war on drugs justifies police searches under the ruse of a Virginia Tech-style attack.


What on earth could authorities in Wolcott be thinking?

School officials told me it was a routine lockdown drill, the kind that schools are required to do.

"We wanted to practice,'' said Superintendent of Schools Joseph McCary. "We said there was a lockdown with an intruder inside. Doors are locked, shades are drawn and the lights are turned off and students are told to move to a corner of the room."

"After 10 minutes we say this is a drill and at that point we started a search for drugs,'' McCary said. "We are providing a safe and secure nurturing environment."

No drugs turned up in the search. An email from the high school to parents explained the event, without mentioning the intruder story. It was described as a "lockdown intervention drill" where "two police dogs swept the hallway lockers, locker rooms and the student parking lot.''

Bringing in police dogs to search for drugs in student lockers, while not common, isn't the real outrage here. It's understandable why adults feel they must do something about drug abuse. It's the trickery and tactics that seem more suited to a police sting operation than a public school.

"I don't think the school administration and police department have any right to mislead these kids, under any circumstances, to conduct a public safety drill," said Carl Glendening, a parent of two high school students. "The kids are told there is an intruder and there is a lockdown and then they see cops coming in with dogs."

"Some kids were freaked out by it. The notion of Columbine was in the back of their minds,'' Glendening said. "We didn't think this through clearly."

"They are kids. They are students. They are not there to be used."

Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, called it a "terrible policy. It will cause more trouble in the long run. Young people will learn not to trust the police."

"It's a terrible civics lesson."

While state law requires schools to have regular emergency drills, drug-sniffing-dog searches are up to the individual school district. Canton schools recently attracted attention for surprise drug searches using dogs.

"The whole issue of search and seizure, you have to have reasonable suspicion, such as if they have had other issues in where the administration feels there's a drug problem in the school,'' said Vincent Mustaro of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "This is one of those policies we consider optional."

School officials say it's not as if they think there's a drug problem in Wolcott. Bringing the dogs in "is precautionary," said school board Chairwoman Patricia Najarian, who added that she didn't see a problem with the fake intruder story.

"Maybe there's a few people who get nervous. When we say it's a surprise drill, it's a surprise drill,'' she said. "We have a very active group of citizens against substance abuse."

The drug search is "something that is good to do periodically. It says we don't have drugs in the school,'' she said. "Either way it's a win-win. I know people get concerned … there seems to be an overreaction."

McCary, the Wolcott superintendent, said they want to teach students to take their safety seriously, so making them think it was real was essential. "If you say it's just a drill, would you move as quickly?"

He makes a point, except that we don't set fires to get students to take fire drills more seriously. There's also another issue. If you say something important to teenagers and you want them to trust you, it's better not to lie.
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source: http://www.courant.com/news/connect...en-drugsearch--1022-20111022,0,4150328.column
 
check your rights at the door.

they should just be upfront about it, I agree. Someone having a panic attack or other freakout could certainly sue the shit out of them.
 
Quite unbelievable! Don't quite know whether to be amused or completely disgusted at this...

Just shows you how fucked up things are out there. I hope one of the parents at the school challenges the authorities over this.
 
High school is the place where Americans learn to distrust authority. Seriously, they want these kids to respect and trust them after they pretend that there's a serious dangerous threat in an attempt to get the kids in trouble? That's just immature and stupid. And ethically fucked up in many ways.
 
i went to school in a small town in the highlands of scotland and we used to get suprise drug searches at the school.
the police would be there before school started and we would be guided into the hall in groups and they would have a dog sniff about us individually.
fortunately only 1 person was naive enough to get caught and they were expelled and then named and shamed in the local papers and news.
they were caught with 2 ectasy pills and a 1/4 ounce of weed
 
By choosing ignorance, they are pushing ignorance in the mind of the young. By lying about cannabis, young people may believe that they are lying about all drugs. This puts some kids on the path of thinking all drugs are as harmless as marijuana which simply isn't the case.
 
Man, get the superintendent/principle a copy of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" before some kid running to get his stash from his locker b4 the k9's come gets shot by a real intruder next time.
 
Yeah, with the shootings that've happened at some schools this is a pretty fucked up stunt to pull. I kinda hope they get sued for potentially traumatising their students.
 
This is sooooo very fucked up. I cant believe no one has commented on the fact that they found zero drugs?

I feel like thats crazy for a whole highschool full of kids. Especially because they searched the parking lot. I know when i was in highschool i always had weed and a pipe in my car for after school...along with a bunch of other people.

Good for them though. A student getting busted during that disgrace of a scenerio would truly piss me off further.
 
highhooked said:
I feel like thats crazy for a whole highschool full of kids. Especially because they searched the parking lot. I know when i was in highschool i always had weed and a pipe in my car for after school...along with a bunch of other people.
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me too, if this would've happened to the high school I graduated from when I was there, I would've been outraged. This isn't police work, it is more akin to Nazi-like searching but instead of jewish people, they are searching for drugs.
 
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