Springfield Council Member Opposes Drug Searches at Son’s School

From today’s Joplin Globe:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A drug search at a Springfield high school that included locking down the school and using drug-sniffing dogs violated the constitutional rights of students and teachers, according to a city councilman.

Councilman Doug Burlison and his wife, Mellony, have asked the American Civil Liberties Union for help in stopping the random drug searches. They contend the searches should be conducted only after specific incidents and not because of general suspicions.

If information about the search at Central High School is correct “the District’s policy of conducting such searches constitute outrageous violations of the Fourth Amendment rights of students and teachers who have been subjected to these searches,” ACLU attorney Doug Bonney wrote Thursday to superintendent Norm Ridder.

The ACLU will consider filing a lawsuit if the district doesn’t change its drug search policies, Bonney said.

Bonney said in his letter that Central High School was locked down on April 22 while officers and drug dogs went into classrooms. Students and teachers were told to leave the room without their belongings, which were then searched.

Ransom Ellis, the school district’s attorney, said Friday that the district had received no other complaints about the search, which was conducted by Greene County sheriff’s deputies and two drug-sniffing dogs.

“It is not a routine thing, but the purpose of it is to indicate a deterrent to possession of drugs,” Ellis said. “They very much hope they never catch any kid. But kids do have drugs and the district has zero tolerance.”

Ellis said Central was the fourth school searched this year. He said only three classrooms and a locker room were searched, and the only time officers touched any possessions was if a dog alerted to it.

School spokeswoman Teresa Bledsoe said the search was not prompted by a specific incident.

The Burlisons’ son, freshman Connor Mizer, told The Springfield News-Leader that if students passed a drug dog on their way to their next class, and the dog signaled an alert, the student’s clothing was searched and the student was told to go outside.

Ellis disputed that any student was sniffed individually, and said the closest any student got to a dog was about 10 feet.

“The dogs were kept away from the kids” he said. “They only looked at items in the classrooms.”

Doug Burlison said he and his wife wanted the ACLU to clarify whether the searches were legal.

“We are both libertarians and cognizant of what is in the Constitution,” he said.

The district told the News-Leader that Central High had eight drug incidents between Oct. 30, 2009, and March 12, 2010.