The state Board of Education last night voted 8-4 to approve controversial changes to the public school system’s disciplinary rules, including allowing for suspicionless locker searches and drug-sniffing dogs.

For nearly two years, board members have been grappling over sweeping changes to the state administrative rule governing student conduct and discipline, known to educators as Chapter 19. A major portion of the disagreements have focused on provisions that would allow for searches of student lockers solely at the discretion of principals and school administrators and the presence of drug-sniffing dogs on public school campuses.
“I am thinking of the
99 percent of our students who are entitled to safe environments,” board member Mary Cochran said last night during nearly two hours of discussion.
Board members debated at length over whether locker searches should be allowed with or without cause.
Kim Coco Iwamoto, an
at-large board member, offered an amendment to remove language that would allow for suspicionless searches, but the majority of board members voted it down.
Board Vice Chairwoman Lei Ahu Isa said she does not support suspicionless searches, suggesting that students have privacy rights when they attend school. “This is unconstitutional,” she said.
Similarly, Kauaçi member Maggie Cox also said allowing for suspicionless searches would, “give (principals) the tools to be able to deal with the small group that are causing the problems.”
The board heard from several testifiers, all opposed to the amendments.
Whitney White, owner of Interquest Detection Canines of Hawaii, ran a six-month drug-sniffing dog pilot project in 2007 at three Maui schools. She used a specially trained dog to detect alcohol, drugs and guns on campus. She said the state could face legal consequences for not allowing drug-sniffing dogs in schools.
“When and if a tragedy occurs relating to drugs, alcohol or gunpowder related items, the state could be sued for disallowing a proven program that could have prevented the tragedy,” she said.
Katherine Irwin, associate professor of Sociology at the University of Hawaiçi-Mänoa, told board members that research has shown the drug sniffing dogs are ineffective.
“The failure of dogs to sniff out drugs on campus can be as high or higher than 30 percent. This means that 30 percent of drugs on campus will go undetected,” Irwin said.
Irwin also suggested that several national organizations such as the NAACP and the Rainbow Push Coalition have challenged similar policies on the Mainland.
Jeanne Ohta, director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, suggested that the board put money into programs that prevent drug abuse rather than spending money on a drug sniffing dog program.
“It sounds like … drug sniffing dogs are going to help the drug problem, but it really doesn’t help. … It doesn’t address usage, it doesn’t decrease usage. Isn’t that the end result of what we want,” she said.
The new policy must be signed by Gov. Linda Lingle before it will take effect.
Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadver
tiser.com or 535-2455.