Editorial: Drug dogs will improve campus

Drug-sniffing dogs have been a point of debate for many students. About three times a year, CVHS pays drug dog services to have specially trained dogs come to sniff out drugs and ambiguous substances in lockers. If they sniff something suspicious, authorities have the right to search the lockers. Some feel that this invades privacy, while others think it keeps the school safe and drug-free. Most of us at The Olympian feel that drug dogs do help our school.

First of all, the benefits outweigh the possible negative effects. If in rare cases, drug dogs may sniff out something that isn’t a drug and authorities will still search the locker. But because the fail rate for dogs is low, the searches will ultimately keep our school drug-free.

Next, the direct reason why CVHS has drug dogs is to keep the school a drug-free campus—not to suppress drug use. Obviously, suppressing drug use is the implied reason for the searches, but it does not directly do that. Its main goal is to keep CVHS a drug-free campus.

What this ultimately means is that if people do drugs, they can do them at home or somewhere not on school property. There would not be a reason to bring the drugs on campus and the searches accomplish their goal. If people do bring drugs to school to sell them—something we at The Olympian do not encourage—they will be caught by the searches and discouraged from doing it again.

Again, the purpose of the searches is not to directly suppress drug use. While that may be the obvious implied reason and many will disagree with it, we believe that secretly bringing drugs to school is a bad idea anyway.

The school system already has rules restricting the use of drugs. Those who disagree with the school’s position and secretly bring drugs to school are only hurting their own cause, by undermining the legitimacy of their rights and breaking school rules.  If drug users believe they do, in fact, have that right; they should first speak up for it and take political action—though that is a different topic entirely and needs discussion elsewhere.