Students returning to any of the four Osseo school district high schools this fall can expect to be greeted by drug dogs. The dogs will be taken through the school parking lots to sniff out all student cars.
Initially, searches will be conducted randomly on the four district campuses and depending on results, may continue throughout the school year and expand into the high school and junior high school buildings.
The high schools included in this search are Maple Grove Senior High, Osseo Secondary Transition Center, Osseo Senior High and Park Center Senior High. The searches will be conducted as part of a plan to make schools safer and as a deterrent to students considering bringing drugs onto campus.
The district school superintendent says that the searches have not been ordered in response to any incidences, but are being enforced strictly for prevention. Furthermore, she said that the goal is not to trap students but to keep drugs off campus.
Included in the plan to make campuses safer, the district will also be installing better lighting and security cameras and confining all building exits and entrances to one common front entryway.
One common exit and entryway? Last time I checked that was a fire and safety hazard and doesn’t seem like a very safe idea. If someone does decide to harm the school, and gets in through the one entryway, students have no alternative escape route out of the school. Or what if there is a fire and the 1,694 students at Osseo Senior High try to get out of the building in a hurry?
Students have been notified that the dogs will be on campus this fall and a story was televised on a local station, so they won’t be surprised. However, even though they received a warning that the searches will take place, doesn’t this border on violation of their 4th Amendment rights?
I don’t believe this is entrapment, as schools are drug free zones to begin with, but if there is no probable cause for the searches to take place, then why would the district spend the time and money? With some many schools having to cut budgets on things such as summer programs, it seems that this money could be better spent elsewhere.
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