The Kern High School District is debating on whether to utilize drug-sniffing dogs on high school campuses. Though well intended, I fear that this is just one more step in the nanny state direction.
The more freedoms and privacy-related issues we allow to be controlled the less we ultimately have. Our liberties should not be relinquished lightly. The precedent has already been set to allow this, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t speak out about it now.
Despite the fact that we should all do what can to prevent the youth from falling into such a destructive lifestyle, I, for one, am concerned about how we are going about it.
Granted, there are no right answers. But, as the Californian has reported, this program has yet to “produce any measurable results” at both Garces Memorial and Bakersfield Christian high schools.
Keeping drugs off school campuses doesn’t ultimately keep kids from doing drugs. It does, however, expose young adults to the possibility of being detained and searched based on a dog’s deductive reasoning.
I understand the need for security to ensure our children’s safety, but do we really want our educational facilities to be policed?
Will the dogs prevent someone from using the drugs before going to school? Will it keep them from stashing it somewhere off campus? What about vehicles? Will they patrol the parking lots? Where will it end?
I fail to see how this type of program will be effective and I believe that our tax dollars are just being tossed down the drain.
Prevention and education is the ultimate deterrent. The real work starts at home. A program that “assists” families that suspects their children of doing drugs would be more beneficial in my opinion. I emphasize “assist” because, from my own experience, incarcerating juveniles for experimentation, habits or addictions merely introduces those youths to the real criminal element.
Realize that in Juvenile Hall, children will be housed next to gang members, thieves, drug dealers, violent offenders and much more. The whole experience is negative, and the only positive result you can hope for is that fear will keep them clean.
If a high school student is detained by one of these dogs and they do find drugs, the situation is no longer in the parents’ control.
The focus should always be to keep kids in schools and off drugs. Again, using our tax dollars to increase communication between families and schools, adding more preventative and educational programs, and home assistance when drug use is suspected would be money well spent, rather than spending $20,000 to have our schools policed by dogs.