McKinley and Roosevelt high schools will begin using drug-sniffing dogs on their campuses next month despite reservations among some Board of Education members and lingering privacy concerns that have stalled the proposal for years.

This will mark the first time that drug-sniffing dogs have been used on a regular basis in a Hawai'i public school aside from a pilot project conducted on Maui in 2007.

Starting in May, drug-sniffing dogs will begin twice-monthly visits at McKinley and Roosevelt to serve as a deterrent for drugs, alcohol and firearms on campus, school officials said.

The state BOE has yet to approve proposed amendments to the state's disciplinary rules that would allow for the sniffing of student lockers, and as a result, the dogs will only be allowed to sniff in public areas. And several board members have expressed opposition to suspicionless searches and drug-sniffing dogs.

Both programs are modeled after the 2007 pilot project at three schools on Maui, where specially trained dogs were used to detect drugs, alcohol and guns on campus grounds but were prohibited from entering classrooms and sniffing lockers, backpacks or people.

Board of Education member Kim Coco Iwamoto said the programs planned at McKinley and Roosevelt don't appear to violate student privacy rights, but she said she has concerns that they set a bad precedent and "will begin indoctrinating the school community to the presence of these dogs."

"The other institutions (where) you find drug-sniffing dogs are prisons. ... We should not treat our schools like prisons and we should not treat our students like criminals," Iwamoto said.

FOCUSED ON PREVENTION

DOE officials said the McKinley and Roosevelt programs do not open the door for dogs on all campuses.

It's not enough for an administrator to want drug-sniffing dogs on campus and to have the money to do it, said Deputy Superintendent Clayton Fujie.

"We had to make sure there was a reasonable suspicion, that there was enough incidents on campus to warrant this," Fujie said.

Ron Okamura, principal of McKinley High School, said he's been pushing for drug-sniffing dogs there because of the "remarkable" success of the Maui pilot project, which he helped conduct. Okamura said incidents of "illicit drugs" dropped to zero on all three campuses during the program.

"My friends on Maui asked me if they could bring drug-sniffing dogs to school. When I asked them why, they said it's about keeping you folks safe," Okamura told students during a school assembly, where a drug-sniffing dog was introduced.

Earlier this month, Okamura submitted data to DOE officials on drug and alcohol incidents on campus to justify the use of drug-sniffing dogs. Since 2004, Okamura said McKinley has had an annual average of about 15 to 20 incidents of "illicit drugs," which includes everything from cigarettes to marijuana.

"One is too much. To me, it's not about being punitive, it's about prevention. When we talk about a drug-free environment, this is one tool we can use," Okamura said.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, he said the drug-sniffing dog program will be conducted at no cost to the state.

'NO INVASION OF PRIVACY'

Drug-sniffing dogs have had a limited presence in a few of Hawai'i's private schools for several years, but within the public school system there has been opposition to using them by some principals, legal experts and BOE members.

Public hearings across the state to solicit public opinion about proposed rule changes regarding drug dogs and other issues have drawn little turnout at the seven meetings held so far.

Those amendments, if approved by the BOE and signed by the governor, would allow for searches of student lockers on public school campuses solely at the discretion of principals and school administrators.

Opponents of drug-sniffing dogs say the drug-sniffs constitute a search and are thereby a violation of constitutional protections from unreasonable searches and seizures.

"As far as I'm concerned, I don't really see a problem because we're not searching lockers or anything like that. There's no invasion of privacy," Okamura said.

Roosevelt High School Principal Ann Mahi did not return a phone call requesting comment yesterday.

In 2007, Okamura was a Maui complex-area superintendent who oversaw a six-month pilot project at three schools: Lahainaluna High, Lahaina Intermediate and Lana'i High & Elementary.

When Okamura arrived at McKinley as principal earlier this school year, he began talking to state schools superintendent Pat Hamamoto about bringing dogs onto that campus. Mahi had similar conversations with Hamamoto.

Whitney White, owner of Interquest Detection Canines, was on both campuses yesterday for asse-mblies to demonstrate how she and her dog Custer conduct searches.

The demonstration was just one part of a process that Okamura and Mahi agreed upon to initiate a drug-sniffing dog program.

Both principals were also asked to demonstrate a need for the dogs, be involved in legal consultations and to properly inform parents, students and the community of their intentions for the program before starting it, Fujie said.

"We wanted to make sure we did this right. There's always been the implication that someone may seek litigation and we wanted to make sure we were doing what we're legally allowed to do," Fujie said.

SCHOOL DEMONSTRATIONS

At McKinley, students appeared intrigued by Custer, the friendly golden retriever trained to detect drugs, alcohol, firearms and even certain over-the-counter medications.

At one point, Custer was taken around to sniff several backpacks and bags laid out on the grassy lawn in front of a classroom building. Students watched as Custer one-by-one sniffed the bags. He finally stopped and sat next to a pink-and-gray bag to signal he smelled contraband. White reached into the bag and removed a tiny bottle of whiskey.

"If in a locker there is a drug plus other agents that smell just as strong, he'll still be able to isolate the drug," White told the students.

Jenny Hong, a 17-year-old junior at McKinley, said the dog could end up being an effective deterrent for drugs on campus.

"In school, you shouldn't be having drugs in the first place. I don't think they would be invading privacy," Hong said.

Her friend, Vittorio Garcia, a 16-year-old junior, said the dog wouldn't be a distraction on campus.

"He seemed like a really well-trained dog," he said.

LEGAL EXPERTS OBJECT

While many students yesterday didn't feel the presence of drug-sniffing dogs would be an invasion of their privacy, many legal experts, including the American Civil Liberties Union and University of Hawai'i professors, have said otherwise.

Earlier this month, ACLU staff attorney Dan Gluck testified in a public hearing at Kapolei High School that proposed changes to Chapter 19 to allow for the suspicionless searches of lockers would erode student privacy and free speech.

"We are concerned that the board is teaching our students a miserable civics lesson by suggesting that we have to sacrifice freedom and privacy in the name of safety," he said.

Jon Van Dyke, a professor with UH's William S. Richardson School of Law, said he doesn't see any issue with what McKinley and Roosevelt plan to do. But if the searches expand to lockers, the state is setting itself up for a lawsuit, he said.

Van Dyke, co-author of "Checklists for Searches and Seizures in Public Schools," a guide used by school districts nationwide, said students have a legitimate expectation of privacy when attending school.

"Minors have rights. Minors are citizens. Courts have always made it clear that they have constitutional rights. So to just sort of throw away the only place in the school they have any control over and say they have no expectation of privacy to me is unacceptable," Van Dyke said.