Jim Beernink of Washington Tactical K-9 arrives at the Mukilteo School Board meeting with Rudy, a yellow lab trained to sniff out drugs. The district may contract with the Mount Vernon company to provide searches of middle and high schools during the academic year. [Click photo to enlarge]

MUKILTEO -- Rick Robbins sees the same level of student drug and alcohol consumption today as he did when he started his career in education three decades ago, although a wider and often more potent array of narcotics now infiltrates the schools.

"The big question for us is, What are we going to do about it?" said the director of secondary education for the Mukilteo School District who believes new strategies should be tried.

Robbins hopes the district will enlist a new ally in its drug fight and introduced Rudy, a drug-sniffing yellow lab, to the Mukilteo School Board Monday night.

The board is considering a contract with Washington Tactical K-9, a Mount Vernon company that brings dogs trained in drug detection into the schools. Rudy could be one of six dogs that would visit the district's middle and high schools beginning in the fall.

The dogs would not be used to search individual students but their lockers and the parking lot would be fair game.

"We want to be public about this and to send a clear message that drugs do not belong in school," Robbins said.

The use of a drug-detecting dog, which has the blessing of the district's attorney and insurance pool, is part of a larger drug and alcohol prevention strategy shift.

In the past, the district had contracts with drug and alcohol counselors from the private sector. This year it is hiring its own counselors, known as intervention specialists.

The district is spending the same amount on drug and alcohol prevention, roughly $140,000, but is investing the money differently, Robbins said.

Part of that strategy could include the dogs for 90 inspections to the middle and high schools. The dogs could also be brought into classrooms as an educational tool.

Washington K-9 has conducted searches on campuses in the Ferndale School District and at alternative high schools in Skagit County.

Jim Beernink, president of Washington K-9, said he follows guidelines from the state Attorney General's Office. Among other things, he does not use dogs to search individual students.

"We can't search individuals," he said. "It's a Fourth Amendment violation and it's not good practice."

"Mostly it is used to serve as a deterrent," he said.

The dogs would be used to search hall lockers and gym lockers, parking lots and other areas. Still to be determined by the district would be items such as backpacks left unattended in empty classrooms and unoccupied student desks.

Dog searches at school are far more common in the south than in Washington.

Mukilteo school superintendent Gary Toothaker told the board of an Oklahoma school district where dogs are used to detect drugs.

"I can tell you that the most important part of the program is it gave kids an excuse to say no," he said. "Those kids on the cusp would have a very expedient reason to say no."

Some schools have used dogs briefly for drug detection in Snohomish County but not on the scale being discussed in Mukilteo.

In the Edmonds School District, a police dog trained to sniff out drugs was used twice last year at Mountlake Terrace High School. The searches were done for free through an agreement between the district and police department and no drugs were found, said Debbie Jakala, a school district spokeswoman.

The possibility of using dogs trained in narcotics detection was mentioned in the Mountlake Terrace High School student handbook, she said.

You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446 or send e-mail to stevick@heraldnet.com.

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