Suggestion Box

As you know, I'm encouraging people to utilize the "suggestion boxes" set up by Student Council. Here's one you might consider for THS: drug sniffing dogs.

They're doing just that at Millburn (NJ) High School. Well, they must have big problems there, you're probably thinking. On the contrary, they were recently named the best high school in New Jersey (by New Jersey Monthly), and 97th best in the country (by U. S. News and World Report). They have some problems, sure.

A sampling of the police blotter from this month showed two 15-year-olds charged with drinking at a party on March 14, and on March 7, three Millburn students, ages 13 to 15, were charged with possessing alcohol. On Jan. 9 a local minister, the Rev. Darryl L. George, 58, of Short Hills, was arrested at the school along with two of his sons, accused of attacking a Millburn High student in a school parking lot. Some witnesses said the victim, an 18-year-old senior who received minor injuries, was hit with a baseball bat. That encounter resulted in assault charges against the minister and his older son, and the suspension of his 15-year-old son, a student at the school.

The New York Cicil Liberties Union opposes the initiative, saying that "police dog searches 'incompatible with nurturing environments that are supposed to be conducive to adolescent education,' and argued that school districts must create a careful balance between school safety and student rights." But the school's principal proclaims that “I willingly risk student trust if it saves a single life."

It may sound extreme. I'd rather not see police dogs in school, and generally I side with the ACLU. But we don't want to have what happened in Glastonbury happen here. And it could happen, any day.