Police dogs search Janesville High Schools
JANESVILLE — Police dogs sniffing for drugs Wednesday "hit" on 11 cars in searches of the student parking lot at Parker High School and a search of one of the two student lots at Craig High School.
Students of the identified cars were called from class, and their cars were searched, according to a school district news release.
Two students, one at each school, were arrested on charges of possession of marijuana, said Karen Schulte, district director of student services.
Schulte said staff parking lots were not searched.
"The initiative that we started was that we didn't want students bringing drugs into the school," she said. "Based on that, we searched student lots."
"Substances and/or paraphernalia" were found in four of the cars, according to a news release. Marijuana, a pill and a "lighter/torch for use with smoking crack" were found, Schulte said.
The school administration notified parents of the students.
Officials locked students in classrooms at both schools in conjunction with the search.
The schools were in a "soft lockdown" during the searches. That means everyone stays in their classrooms, but classes go on as usual, said district spokeswoman Sheryl Miller.
The searches lasted about 45 minutes, Miller said.
Dogs from the Janesville, Beloit and Madison and UW-Madison police departments were used in the searches. No dog entered the school buildings, Miller said.
A letter will be mailed to all Craig and Parker parents, explaining the search process.
Police and school officials have been letting drug-sniffing dogs into Janesville middle and high schools for three years.
Dogs have "hit" on student lockers in the past, but no drugs were turned up in those searches. Officials suspect that the dogs' sensitive noses reacted to drug residue that couldn't be detected by any other means.
Nov 21, 2008 at 10:51 a.m.
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Reminds me of a story about someone who bought a car at a police auction. The person got pulled over and the cops just so happened to have a drug sniffing dog. Anyways pot was found in the search. The person who bought the car at auction went to jail. Funny how the story went. The car was seized in a drug raid and put up for auction, but noone from the dept that auctioned the car checked it for drugs. Well there was pot found everywhere in the cars hidden areas. Behind door panels etc. The only thing that saved this person was that the pot was so old it fell apart. Thus saving an innocent person from going to prison. I'm glad that wasn't me that bought that car. Senerios like this happen every day. Innocent people are treated like criminals.
Nov 20, 2008 at 6:41 p.m.
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Does anybody see arrows in life? You know, like directional pointers? I see lots of arrows everywhere. I see arrows in regard to cancer pointing to cures one day. When it comes to vehicles I see arrows pointing to greater safety with dropping death rates almost every year. Lots of arrows if you look for them. I like to try and see what conclusion the arrows are leading to. There are arrows that point to scary conclusions that I see, too. Drinking too much points to a scary conclusion. So does spending more than what is brought in. If you take a subject in it's present state, and look back into recent history to see what state is was in earlier, you can draw these conclusions with different arrows. What directions are some arrows pointing to in this article? What are the arrows? Drug use in schools can be an arrow. So can drug prevention efforts. They all can have arrows, and all have conclusions.
Nov 20, 2008 at 6:07 p.m.
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foxyroush i think your daughter told you a fib....
Nov 20, 2008 at 5:25 p.m.
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too bad those dogs cant smell alcohol...since its the most used illegal drug by teens there is NO DOUBT they would have got some hits. why bother tho...that drug only kills people...
Nov 20, 2008 at 4:23 p.m.
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My daughter told me last year, that a girl had marijuanna hidden in her locker. Nobody found out about it because that girl hid the drug in a small container and then another bigger one, then another bigger still one...several times.. so no detection... I'm glad Police and school officials are using their dogs to sniff out drugs, but they SHOULD let them into the schools.. especially searching the lockers.. if you dig deep enough... there's more there than meets the "eye"..
If these kids are stopped from using all these drugs, maybe there'd be less fights and kids might actually behave better. It sure wouldn't hurt the kids to be more respectful of teachers and other students, either.
Nov 20, 2008 at 2:50 p.m.
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I agree.
Nov 20, 2008 at 2:25 p.m.
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they should of did teacher parking lots too. probably would of got a few "hits" there too.
Nov 20, 2008 at 1:37 p.m.
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Looks like I'll need to find a new pot supplier.
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