Some parents say an unannounced drug search that involved the use of a police dog in a sixth grade class Thursday at Escalante Middle School was a heavy-handed approach to keeping schools drug-free.
The “over-the-top” drug enforcement action by Durango School District 9-R rattled the teacher and concerned parents, said Tirzah Camacho, a parent of a student in the class.
During the search, two La Plata County Sheriff Office’s deputies and a drug-sniffing dog searched the classroom for drugs, but no illegal substances were found, said sheriff’s spokesmen Sgt. Chris Burke.
“It was an unannounced visit at the request of the school,” he said.
The officers were in the classroom for about five minutes with a police dog, he said. The Sheriff’s Office dog is trained to detect marijuana, ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin, he said.
As the former school resource officer at Escalante, Burke said he found small amounts of marijuana and edibles while working at the school.
Durango School District 9-R spokeswoman Julie Popp said the district has conducted drug searches for many years and plans to increase the frequency of drug searches in the future, in part because the Sheriff’s Office now has a trained drug-sniffing dog that can assist with searches. In the past, the district conducted drug searches three times a year, she said.
“We are grateful that this year the Sheriff’s Office now has a trained dog to help us further our mission of maintaining a drug-free school zone,” Popp said in an email to The Durango Herald. Future searches may be unscheduled and unannounced, she said.
The school district did not respond to a written question about whether law enforcement or the school district had legal cause to search the classroom.
The district also did not respond to questions about whether administrators and staff members were notified before Thursday’s search, and how searching an entire classroom keeps students safe.
Camacho said she hasn’t heard her from her child that Escalante has a serious drug problem that would merit police dog searches in classrooms. If drugs are a prevalent problem, she would like to see more communication from the school about it.
“The education around drugs, in general, could be upped, I’m sure, as opposed to this reactive military-style classroom tossing,” she said.
Other parents expressed concern about the unannounced drug search but declined to comment on the record for this story.
mshinn@durangoherald.com
