Dogs just say NOse to drugs

For over 14 years, the district has paid to have drug dogs visit our school grounds in order to create a drug and contraband free environment.
The district has a contract with Impact Canine Solutions, which is a company specialized in keeping campuses and businesses drug free. The company trains the canines in Europe, with a few exceptions, and their instructors train them to follow commands in Dutch. Moreover, the dogs are capable of sniffing not only drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but they can also detect minute quantities of alcohol and gunpowder.
The drug-sniffing team for our campus consists of Spartacus, Blitz and Remi. Our dogs are specialized canines called focus alert dogs that freeze and stare when they detect any unauthorized substances. Canines are typically used as focus alert dogs as opposed to other breeds of dogs because they are easier to train and have up to 300 olfactory receptors, which allows them to smell 40 times better than humans and detect 50 distinct odors.
The dogs come roughly twice a month and go to approximately ten classrooms per visit. On average, up to four students are taken out of class for every drug inspection day. When pulled out of class, the students and their backpacks are searched for any illegal substances and contrabands. Most of the time, the suspected students do not have any drugs present on them, and the dogs are only smelling the possible residue of a particular drug or other strong scent. If a student is found to have drugs, he or she will be immediately suspended.
Prior to working for the district, Spartacus was trained in the Czech Republic, while Remi and Blitz were trained in the East Coast. Both Blitz and Spartacus have been working at TCHS for four years, and Remi is the newest addition to the team. She has yet to pay a visit to the school grounds, but she can be expected to visit in the near future. The handlers of the focus alert dogs are Al and Danny.
“It’s hard to know what has changed due to the visits, since we have had the dogs for a number of years,” Assistant Principal Mr. Aaron Chang said. “But, our goal is to create a safe and healthy environment for all our students and staff members.”