http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005 by the authors Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:13 EST http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/11/10/130222.php#comment-27927 I work in the drug and alcohol field. These scare tactics, as used as prevention, do not work. They found nothing, just like the sobriety checkpoints usually yield about a 2% arrest rate. Is violating our civil liberties worth catching a kid with weed or getting one guy with a BA of .08% NO 27927@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 Nov 2003 14:06:13 EST http://blogcritics.org/archives/2003/11/10/130222.php#comment-27923 I graduated highschool in 1997 in the suburban Cleveland area and by the time I was a sophomore, they had instituted dog searches of the school a couple times per year, but these were done effectively and sent the proper message. After all the students were in class, the principal would come over the speaker and tell any students remaining in the hallway that they had a few minutes to get to their classroom, and if they didn't have a classroom, they were to report to the office. Then the dogs would go through and the officers would search lockers that the dogs had identified. No individual students were ever searched until after drugs had been found in their locker. After being at school during 5 or 6 searches, one student had been arrested. They found some pot in his locker, the officers got the student out of class, he was arrested and walked out of the building in handcuffs. The message was clear that the school wouldn't allow students to have drugs in school. The police to student confrontations were limited to offenders after they had proven to be offenders based on locker contents. They made an example of only those who were guilty and in my mind it was an effective way to keep drugs out of school. 27923@blogcritics.org Mon, 10 Nov 2003 13:13:12 EST