Police Dog Search At NHS Turns Up Pot

By Andrew Gorosko

In a “narcotics sniff’” on the morning of Thursday, April 9, at Newtown High School, police using six dogs trained to detect the presence of illicit drugs turned up one bag of marijuana that someone had apparently hidden in a parking lot at the school, police said.

The dog-based search for narcotics came in conjunction with a “lockdown” drill that was held at the high school. Police conducted a similar drug search during a lockdown drill at the school last year.

In such a lockdown drill, students are kept locked in their classrooms for practice in the event that some external threatening incident requires that they stay in secure places inside the building to prevent them from being harmed.

Besides the town police’s German shepherd, known as Baro, other dogs participating in the drug search were from municipal police departments in Brookfield, Bethel, Ridgefield, Middlebury, and Stratford.

In the search, six police-dog handlers had their canines sniff school lockers and vehicles parked at the school, police said. The dogs do not sniff individual students, according to police.

“A bag of marijuana was located in the parking lot behind some vehicles. This marijuana was seized, but no arrests were made. Police were unable to determine who the marijuana belonged to, based on where it was located,” town police K-9 Officer Andrew Stinson said in a statement.

The marijuana found by police apparently had been hidden by someone under a tire in the parking lot.

Police Chief Michael Kehoe said that the amount of marijuana found was a small amount, less than one ounce.

No arrest was made in the case, he said, adding that the matter is under investigation. “We’re looking at all aspects of the crime,” he said.

The dog-based police search for drugs was requested by school officials, Chief Kehoe said. Such searches are worthwhile efforts in seeking to find illegal drugs at the school, he said.

Police are serious about getting drugs out of the school because it is a disruptive influence on students, he said.

“We have brought the dogs in before [for drug searches] and will continue to do it,” said School Superintendent Janet Robinson.

Dr Robinson said that the location of the marijuana that was found by police in the drug search made it “too circumstantial” for them make an arrest in the case.

However, because school administrators have broader powers over students than police, school officials decided to suspend one male student for five school days over the drug having been found near his vehicle, the superintendent said. Dr Robinson did not disclose the youth’s identity.

“We would rather eliminate the drugs than have students using them” she said.

Beyond the discipline of a suspension, the student will be referred to a student counselor in light of the drug discovery, Dr Robinson said.

Dr Robinson said that school administrators, school security staff, and the police’s school resource officer have formed an effective team to deal with the student problems at the school, including the presence of drugs.