NEWPORT BEACH/COSTA MESA : School Drug Searches Get Initial Approval

A policy to use drug-sniffing dogs at Newport Beach and Costa Mesa high school and middle school campuses won preliminary approval Tuesday on a 5-2 vote of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board.

Board members Sherry Loofbourrow and Martha Fluor voted against the plan. They said the plan has the potential of creating a climate of suspicion.

“I do not see any positive benefit that even remotely comes close to outweighing the negative effects,” Loofbourrow said.

Fluor agreed but also protested the policy’s failure to address the substances teen-agers most commonly abuse: alcohol and tobacco.

“I’m still not convinced that this is the next step that we as a district need to take to discourage the use of drugs on campus,” she said.

Board member Roderick H. MacMillian supported the policy despite an amendment requiring four searches a year at the schools. He said he opposed having a set number of searches.

Board President Edward H. Decker acknowledged that the plan seems drastic. But he said the school community would become accustomed to it as a necessary evil.

The policy includes provisions to post notices at campus entrances of possible locker and car searches.

Students need not be present for locker searches, but school officials will try to contact the drivers for car searches if a dog indicates the likelihood that drugs are inside. Otherwise, police would handle a search when a car leaves the campus.