Pleasanton mulls high school drug dogs

Students in the Pleasanton Unified School District use drugs. They also sell drugs. We know this because Pleasanton is no different from the rest of the Bay Area, or the United States.

Miffed parents put a bug in the ear of district trustees about this, and the trustees are considering following the lead of Livermore and Castro Valley by bringing in drug dogs to their high schools to snuff out a burgeoning number of drug suspensions.

Trustees discussed deploying drug-sniffing dogs into the locker rooms and parking lots of the district’s three high schools at a meeting Tuesday. The action comes in response to 63 suspensions so far this school year for alcohol and drugs. Last year at this time, 45 students had been suspended for alcohol- or drug-related offenses.

It’s not just pot and beer anymore for high schoolers either. Oxycontin, a powerful prescription painkiller, is one drug police say is surging among use in youth.

School officials are being cautious about trampling the civil rights of students. The dogs would patrol schools on selected dates, but not with students present.