"$20,000 a year to hire a trained dog to come sniff out drugs and alcohol."

I don't know but this sounds like per dog.  Did they count the cost of paying the handler?

I'm thinking rats (as in other students ratting out their friends) would be cheaper.

Ken Mettler obviously thinks that public high school is a prison preparatory process and spares no costs in giving students real hands-on experience to better condition them for their future scholastic environment. 

This is just one more little attempt to morph the United States into a police state where the presumption of innocence, the right to face your accuser and the right of privacy no longer exists for citizens. It is a real bracer seeing so many of the locals having no problem with this further erosion of fundamental rights. 

I am so grateful my kids never had to attend school here. This Kern High School District  Board is a disgrace to any person who actually values education and learning. It is always the big issues, such as what to call the mid-winter and spring breaks, or should we hang a motto on the wall for patriotic inspiration that take all this Board's attention and time. Meanwhile back on the reality front the kids in this district continue to lag behind the rest of the state in virtually every academic category.

If I were a student at such a school, I'd obtain a small sample of the Demon Weed and rub it across every single locker I found before tossing the remains into the corner of the teacher's lounge.

Pardon me for being a parent dictator, but these are kids, not adults. My kids have no privacy rights in my house (no locked doors, random searches of rooms and backpacks, etc). I do this to protect them from themselves because teen aged boys don't seem to have great decision making skills. I will continue to do this until they leave my home because I would rather them deal with my consequences than letting them run wild so as not to "violate their rights", then they have to deal with the consequences of law enforcement. I can only monitor and observe what goes on in my own house and I would love for the high schools to have drug sniffing dogs. If anything, it might be a deterrent to dealing at school. Do I think it will stop drugs in school? No, but if we can limit it at least a little, I say it's worth it.

Hey Random,

Add some chili powder like Cool Hand Luke for even more entertainment!

When kids have no rights growing up they often find it difficult to respect the rights of others as adults. I am alarmed at the continued loss of privacy as a citizen in this country. I would like to think that many others share this alarm when large conglomerates allow phone and e-mail communications to be scrutinized by the government. Search and seizures under a growing list of circumstances now no longer needs a warrant for the police to proceed. Today it might all be about illegal drugs, but tomorrow it could be all about illegal commentary, and it would be too late for all of us.  

"bakersfield", I am in 100% agreement with you.  I have a 15 year old daughter at Ridgeview High, a good student, who every couple of days tells me about other kids offering her drugs and when she opts out, they tell her how "lame" she is.  I also have a 21-year old daughter who attended Liberty High her sophmore through senior year and she too told me of the drugs (cocaine, marijuana, and meth) that was offered to her and her friends.  It is a HUGE problem in schools today and if one drug sniffing dog were to catch ONE individual with drugs in MY childs school, I say go for getting the dogs.   I think it highly unlikely that kids are going to walk around rubbing drugs on lockers and then throw it in a teachers lounge.  But, if that's the case, drug test the teachers who it was found with.  Nothing to worry about if it's not yours, huh?  Most of these kids who OFFER drugs, are using the drugs.  Just my thoughts....