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Chassity, Edson, and Alexis
Mrs. Bittle
ENG 111.351
23 October 2014
Canine Unit on Board
Parents are always trying to keep their kids safe, and although they cannot be with their
children every minute of every day, they rely on other adults to watch over them, specifically in
schools. Most times, parents wonder if their child is truly safe at school or if there are situations
occurring which they have no idea about. For the most part, parents try their very best raising
their child with respectful morals and proper discipline, but how do they know whether or not
their child enforces their upbringing when they’re off on their own? Additionally, with the
increasing amount of school violence, parents fear leaving their children in the hands of others.
For instance, students these days are involved in physical violence such as school shootings and
are also subject to an array of other influences, such as drugs. Students sometimes struggle in
making decisions of whether or not to tell authorities, or keep the crucial knowledge to
themselves in fear of retaliation. Although schools are tightening their security measures, we
argue that they could take it one step further and require each school’s resource officer to be
accompanied by a drug dog.
By enforcing drug dogs within school environments, we can help eliminate the threat of
students coming in contact with various drugs and/or weapons. Majority of lower grade schools
have gotten rid of their resource officers, therefore enabling students to have a better chance of
getting into a habit of doing drugs and committing crimes. A vast number of people might argue
that schools shouldn't have a canine because some students may provoke the dog and possibly
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get bitten, which could potentially turn into a lawsuit against the school. When situations like
this occur, not only does it give a bad impression on the school, but also on the police department
where the canine normally resides, because it would be portrayed that the dog did not have
proper training. Therefore, some might not want their children attending that particular school,
whether it’s a great school or not, just because of that one incident; and even though that is being
drastic, that is how judgmental some people can be.
People might also argue that schools shouldn't have drug dogs because they are
expensive, due to the specific training they require and the expenses it takes to provide them with
proper food and other essentials. A dog trained for both patrol and narcotics, can cost anywhere
from $8,000 to $10,000, and with the economy this day in time, most communities cannot afford
that type of expense. There happens to be a non-profit organization called the National
Association of School Resource Officers, which provides the proper training to individuals
preparing to become a school resource officer. Resource officers are also provided their salary
from the state, so most schools do not have a problem enforcing that type of protection.
Although, when you try to add a drug dog to the mix, finances do get complicated because
school funds are already cut below budget, so it is perfectly understandable for the communities
to worry about providing that sort of enforcement, but we do have an organization called "From
Street Dog to Police Dog". This organization benefits police departments and thousands of
schools that struggle with funding issues that make them unable to afford police dogs or handler
training while preventing dogs from being killed by animal shelters (PR, Newswire). "It's a lot of
money, we've got thousands of police departments and thousands of schools that can't afford
narcotics and explosives dogs, and we've got countless dogs in need of saving. Police
departments and schools have to find some way to afford the handler training. This campaign
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will help police departments and schools get the funding needed, while also making sure these
animals aren't destroyed by overcrowded shelters." says Universal K9 Manager Brad Croft.
Therefore, there are exceptional procedures schools can take to provide this type of safety for our
students.
Some people also argue that using drug dogs to search the property is an invasion of
privacy, but searching school property is legal and as long as an item is on the school’s property,
they have the right to check it. Drug detection dogs are being used by schools to find illegal
substances and send a zero tolerance message to the students. Schools could pay for two or four
visits a year, with each visit costing from $200-$300, in which the dogs could search lockers and
rooms and not the students (Cate, Broughton). By doing so, personal privacy is still maintained,
while proper procedures to ensure criminal safety is still enforced. If schools cannot afford to have
a drug dog on campus all the time, the community should at least go to the extent of providing
occasional visits; a few is better than none.
When parents send their child to school, they mainly expect the teachers to provide a safe
and proper environment, because they are who their child spends 7+ hours of their time around
five days out of the week. Though it is questioned, how are teachers expected to be viewed as role
models for our younger generations if they fail to practice what they preach? There was an incident
within a Rowan County elementary school, where a teacher and her husband who is a doctor, were
involved in a drug ring which included several other teachers of that school. That is not the type
of role models that children should be looking up to. What if those teachers had decided to give or
sell the drugs to the students? Obviously, those teachers’ judgments were impaired because they
thought it was okay to take part in such an act and around innocent children for that matter. By
doing that, kids could be influenced to think that since their teacher is doing it, then it must be fine
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for them to do so as well. Also, what if those adults had decided to use students to sell the drugs
along with the other teachers; then you have kids who are involved in drug trafficking which is
highly dangerous. If there would’ve been drug dogs at that school, they most likely could have
prevented those teachers from bringing the drugs into the school, and maybe even prevented the
drug ring happening period.
Our younger generations are the ones who shape our communities, so we need to take
proper action to ensure they have the safety that is needed to allow them to live a long and
healthy life. By enforcing a drug dog within the schools, we are providing a safety technique that
mankind cannot do, because as humans we do not have the senses canines provide. Although
there are very valuable reasons as to why schools cannot always provide canines, there are even
stronger reasons for why we should. If we do not provide safety for the children of our nation,
then who will? Students count on their elders to help them through life, so we need to make sure
we help them the safest, smartest way possible. With proper safety protocols within schools,
there is a stronger chance for students to take the right paths, and that should be every teacher
and parent’s number one goal.