More Drug-Sniffing Dogs at Bay Area High Schools

Before Bay Area high school students can go to the drugs, school officials will make them go to the dogs.

Drug-sniffing dogs could become an increasing fixture on campuses in East Bay school districts like Dublin and Livermore, after initial use of the dogs was brought in to combat a spike in drug use, according to the Contra Costa Times.

The first time a drug dog was on campus at Granada High in Livermore, it found oxycodone, according to the newspaper. Now, the entire Pleasanton school district could join Livermore, Dublin, and Castro Valley in bringing in drug-sniffing dogs to sniff out drugs in locker rooms and random searches, the newspaper reported.

In some school districts, drug suspensions and expulsions have dropped, meaning the dogs work as a deterrent, according to the newspaper.

Some students say that having dogs on campus will merely encourage students to continue using drugs off-campus, and that programs which engage students to discuss drug use is a better tool for saving lives.

The school district's trustees will mull the dog question at its meeting Tuesday.