No drugs found during search of high school parking lots
JANESVILLE — Thirteen Janesville high school students were taken to their cars Wednesday and asked if they had any drugs inside.
The students consented to the searches at Craig and Parker high schools. No drugs were found.
The searches were part of another round of searches by drug-sniffing dogs. Six dogs and their handlers—from the Janesville, Beloit and Madison police departments—walked the student parking lots at each school.
The dogs "hit" on nine cars at Parker and four at Craig, officials said.
Employee lots are not searched because that was not the program the school board approved, said district spokeswoman Sheryl Miller.
This is the second parking lot search in the program. Earlier searches were of lockers at the middle and high schools.
The first car search was at the city's two high schools last November, when police arrested two students, one at each school, on charges of possession of marijuana.
Those were the only arrests in the program's three-year history.
Schools are under "soft lockdowns" during the searches. That means classes continue, but no one may leave the classroom.
If a student's car is suspected, a counselor will get the student from the classroom and bring him or her to the car for the search, said Craig Principal Mike Kuehne.
Students are asked to permit the search, and so far, no student has refused, said Kuehne and Parker Principal Steve Schroeder.
Kuehne said at least one of the students whose cars were searched Wednesday was "a bit of a surprise" to school officials.
The student suspected that someone who rode in the car might have been carrying drugs.
"The student indicated she might need to make some friendship changes," Kuehne said.
Kuehne said the dog searches are more about sending a message than catching violators.
"The purpose is to send a message of deterrence. We don't want them using drugs, that there's the potential that we can go through cars in parking lots," Kuehne said.
Kuehne noted that the student handbook states that just like lockers, cars parked at school are subject to search if an administrator finds "reasonable cause."
Sgt. Brian Donohoue of the Janesville police noted that high school locker searches haven't been done this year.
"We are going to do the interior of the schools, but we've been waiting until construction is done," Donohue said.
Dogs were walked by more than 300 cars at Craig and about 150 at Parker, officials said.
Donohoue said much depends on the weather and the dogs. Handlers make a judgment about whether a dog is tiring or losing interest.
Wednesday's rain probably hampered the effort, Donohoue said.
The Craig search started around 9 a.m.; Parker at 9:20 a.m., Miller said.
Miller said only the principals are informed of the searches, usually one day in advance.
Jun 7, 2009 at 8:29 a.m.
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IS THIS LEGAL I DONT THINK SO .WHAT NEXT?POLICE NEED SOMETHING BETTER TO DO ,LIKE TRAFFIC DUTY AT ALL THE SCHOOLS,SO OUR STUDENTS CAN FEEL SAFE FROM CHILD MOLESTERS,AND THEIVES.POLICE SHOULD BE CONCERN ABOUT THERE OWN PARKING LOT.ITS JUST TO BAD THAT THE JPD NEED SOMETHING TO DO .WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REAL DEA.IN ROCK CO .DO THEY DO THERE JOB?OR ARE, WE TAX PAYERS WASTING OUR MONEY.
May 30, 2009 at 1:57 p.m.
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mbird and hannah...there was a Spanish teacher when I went to school who was a drinker. This teacher was a woman though.
May 29, 2009 at 2:49 p.m.
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better redact the 4th amendment from all the civics text books or sooner or later some student wont consent
May 29, 2009 at 1:30 p.m.
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User or abuser your not going to see officials go after certain groups of individuals. You can't have it in your system if you were not in possession either. I am sure you get the point lets go into government employees parking lots and see if the dogs hit on their autos. They have strict policies too, and we pay them. The kids are defenseless and easy to puch around without certain expectations of rights as minors. Lets be fair and make the same expectations of others in public positions and on our tax paid property.
May 29, 2009 at 1:23 p.m.
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I believe if you check the students cars, lockers & such. You should also set an example to the students and perform the same drug/alcohol search of the desk, cars & purses of the Support staff & teachers. Knowing a few teachers during my school days & during my childrens school days. THERE ARE TEACHERS THAT DO DRUGS & ALCOHOL DURING THE TIME THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO BE TEACHING OUR STUDENTS. In fact, there was a teacher that smelled of alcohol everytime I saw him during conferences, athletic activities & other school functions. So you tell me he was not under the influence when he was suppose to be teaching!!! Remember, drugs are in all walks of life....lawyers, doctors, politicians, nurses & TEACHERS/PRINCIPALS!!!!
May 29, 2009 at 1:04 p.m.
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Are they searching all lockers in a given building or "just" hallway main purpose lockers? If so, and they results have been so minimal, maybe they should expand to art, music, gym and "varsity" locker bays as well.
May 29, 2009 at 12:45 p.m.
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tallman: there is NO DRUG TEST IN THE WORLD to detect a drug abuser. they can only detect a user...and there is OBVIOUSLY a big diff
May 29, 2009 at 12:34 p.m.
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If the state would mandate supprise UA tests by a private company on all protective status workers ie police, fire, probation/parole agents and the like we would be shocked at the number of abusers in these fields. We all know it we just don't want to face it. Although they wouldn't make it public about the number of abusers in those categories it would be hush hush and turn a blind eye. Now they will say "we have drug testing". Yes, but they are alerted when the tests are coming, and only in extreme cases of accident etc, are they done. It is NOT a suprise walk in and drop program through out any agency.
May 29, 2009 at 12:25 p.m.
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i understand its about all drugs. but who are the ONLY TWO to get arrested?? no heroin users. no alcohol users. no prescription users. which drugs are killing our teens?? all of the above EXCEPT POT. how effective has this program been of ridding drugs from our kids?? scare tactics have never worked and thats all these are. 'if you bring drugs to school you will get arrested and humiliated in front of your peers'. duh. so they dont keep them in their cars. instead of sending officer friendly in to search the cars why not send him in to the auditorium to talk about the heroin overdoses?? that, in my opinion, would be way more fruitful than a stupid search that after 3 years has proven itself essentially useless.
this is exactly why the 'law' wants drugs to remain illegal. not because of kids using or not using or what drug use does to an individual. BECAUSE EVEN THO ILLEGAL AND LETHAL THEY ARE OBVIOUSLY STILL USING AT AN ALARMING RATE. they want drugs to remain illegal for job security. nothing more.
May 29, 2009 at 12:17 p.m.
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If there is so little real crime that the police have to spend their days regulating what people put into their bodies, then perhaps some staffing cuts are in order at the JPD!
May 29, 2009 at 11:59 a.m.
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how naive. do people REALLY think scare tactics work?? thats all this 'detterant' is. 3 year program and 2 arrests. sounds pretty cost effective to me. why dont we spend that money and do more to educate our kids. can those dogs search for the big killer alcohol?? so they find some pot in your kids car. what now?? expelled from school?? maybe no longer eligible for a scholarship?? for what?? some weed. please. i have not, or will never condone ANY drug use by a minor...but of ALL the drugs available to kids today...alcohol, oxy, heroin, vicadin, and who knows what else...pot is the least to be concerned about. all others can kill with use. not pot.
May 29, 2009 at 10:28 a.m.
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"a bit of a surprise" regarding a student's usage, Mike? Maybe before you profile, you should read the recent St. Louis study for the Journal of Health Psychology. The results indicate that students of student's of high socio-economic status are more likely to use than low SES students. Seems to me that Janesville school officials might want to focus their preconceived notions a bit more on a cross section of students, and they will be less "surprised" as to who pops up as users.
May 29, 2009 at 10:19 a.m.
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Also, legally, the principal can ask law enforcement to conduct a search of a student's locker at any time, with suspicion. Not sure about SDJ policies in that regard.
May 29, 2009 at 10:19 a.m.
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Ya Tallman, I agree. If the cops wanna find drugs they should try looking right under their noses! Check all of the trashed rental units(AKA:SLUMS!) in this city! The city council really needs to do something more to erase these blighted properties from our city.
May 29, 2009 at 10:15 a.m.
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tyger02: No...The fact that the dog hit on the car does not extend PC to the owner/driver and/or his/her locker. The hit was on the car, and that is the sole focus of the search (unless there were occupants in the car at the time of the hit).
May 29, 2009 at 10:13 a.m.
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Sounds like to many police with to little to do!!!! Good God lets get real.
May 29, 2009 at 8:41 a.m.
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This could pay back some people you don't like. Just throw some drug residue in the unlocked vehicle.
May 29, 2009 at 12:26 a.m.
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They can smell drugs that might have been on somebody riding in a car previously? If so, is it legal to hold assembly and just walk the dogs through the area ... or does that infringe on students' rights?
May 29, 2009 at 12:23 a.m.
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tyger02, he probably means this school year, which ends in a matter of days.
May 28, 2009 at 11:52 p.m.
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If I had to guess I'd say that all the dust and such generated by construction might be a problem with dogs, who can smell about 400 times better than us humans.
May 28, 2009 at 7:49 p.m.
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Unbelievable!, the police actually admit they will not search lockers this year due to construction. What does construction have to do with locker searches? If the lockers are not being searched by dogs, how do you account for the arrests listed in the public record throughout the year? Is this just a random search of individual students, or are they being turned in by other students and staff? It still seems like the schools are looking the other way with drug use. For example, the Craig principal states that one of the cars searched was "a bit of a surprise" Why, she didn't fit into their stereotypical definition of a user? Didn't this "hit" give probable cause to search her and her locker? I guess Kuehne states it the best, when he says the searches are more about sending a message than catching violators.
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