The Use of Drug Sniffing Dogs in Schools

Schools need to be a safe havens for students, free from drugs or other harmful influences. But sometimes students bring drugs to school with them. Finding drugs in school is a concern for educators. If teachers suspect that drugs are becoming a problem, the school may opt to bring in a drug-sniffing dog and handler.

  1. Drug Sniffing Process

    • Drug-sniffing dogs are used by schools to find drugs that students have brought with them and stored in their lockers or cars. Some students may be passing or even selling drugs to other students. The drug-sniffing dogs are walked through the halls by a handler. When the dog smells something suspicious, it sits down or barks, alerting the handler. The student is then pulled from class and hus belongings are searched.

    Advantages

    • The obvious advantage is that if drugs are being brought to school by students, then a drug-sniffing dog will find it. Dogs have a sense of smell that is many times better than a human's. They can smell minute amounts of drugs, even when the lockers are closed.

    Disadvantages

    • When a drug-sniffing dog comes into the school, students may feel as if their civil rights have been violated. They may feel as if they are guilty until proven innocent. Searches are often conducted during class, when the halls are free of students. It also causes disturbances, which may prevent students from concentrating on their lessons in favor of paying attention to what's going on outside. The searches can be expensive for school districts, with some paying up to $500 per visit.

    False Positives

    • A study published in February of 2011 indicates that dogs can be influenced by their handlers expecting drugs to be present. The study involved four rooms in a church. The handlers were told that drugs were present in the rooms, and that there would be a marker in the locations where the drugs were placed. Two of the rooms had markers, two had none. One of the marked rooms and one of the unmarked rooms had sausage and tennis balls as lures for the dog. Even though no drugs were present in any of the rooms, dogs alerted that drugs were present in all of the rooms. Rooms that had the markers had a significantly higher number of alerts. The dogs may have been reading subtle clues from their handlers, prompting them to alert when there were no drugs.