Surprise sniffer dogs for school

Sniffer dogs will be brought into Coromandel Area School, in Coromandel township, to check for illegal drugs.

Principal Asha Peppiatt says she will bring in Auckland-based Elite Dog Services at some stage this year to check school buildings and grounds.

She says she has the full backing of the board of trustees for the move.

"We have young children here and I want to make sure the school is a safe place to be," she said.

Despite talk in the community, she said she did not know for sure whether there were drugs at school or what the scale of the problem might be.

"This will help eliminate them or help to confirm we don't have these kind of things. I don't know which way it is but I want to find out."

Elite Dog Services has more than 50 schools nationwide as its clients.

Its dogs are trained to search for all illegal substances and have been increasingly used to identify P.

The service can cost up to $1900 a day.

Ms Peppiatt said she was concerned about all drugs, including marijuana.

All students were being informed of the dogs' visit but no one except her would know exactly when it would take place.

She had seen the dogs operate in two other schools where she had worked and said it was a very successful method of dealing with drug problems.

The dogs were not threatening and were taken into buildings after the students were moved outside.

Another new initiative at the school is the introduction of a counselling programme instead of suspension for anyone caught with drugs.

Ms Peppiatt said the programme, which included support and ongoing drug testing, was a much better option than suspension.

"You need to change behaviour. It's been shown this has a much longer-lasting effect than suspension."

Police support the programme, which has just started with one student trialling it.

- NZPA