By Alex Gounaris
Staff Writer
During the early morning of November 16, Westford Academy opened its doors to eight search dogs, primarily German Shepards and a few mutts. These canine drug warriors were brought from the Westford Police Department, as well as Tewksbury and other surrounding towns.
According to Principal Jim Antonelli, the brief, yet efficient, search found no illicit substances on campus, and all remained peaceful. Accompanying the dogs were eight squad cars, each driven by an officer.
Although this morning’s search turned up nothing questionable, Antonelli said last year there were illicit substances located on the WA campus.
If something is found, the substance is immediately brought to a specified room within the Academy, and certain administrators are gathered to assist in the process of locating the student in question. Once the student is located, he/she is brought to the room and questioned about the substance(s) found. If the student raises further suspicion, he or she is then subject to a thorough search. This search is not invasive, and considered “superficial”, including the removal of shoes, socks, checking around the waistline, and removing hats. Any punishment is then decided by proper authorities, explained Antonelli.
A popular belief is the correlation between the Student Risk Behavior survey and the amount of dog searches. However, this has been deemed false by Antonelli.
“It really is based on the availability of the police officers,” said Antonelli.
The school aims for two to three canine searches per year. As principal, Antonelli has never had to order more than two in his career.
How does this average compare with surrounding schools? Interestingly enough, Acton High School has their own canine unit, and refuses to bring in outside search dogs. Chelmsford has done one search this year, and Antonelli estimates “fifty percent of the dual county league schools do canine searches, the other fifty percent don’t.”
Students turned to Twitter to voice their reactions during the search. Some were amused such as one student who tweeted, “Lol @ drug search in WA parking lot #woof”
Other students expressed disapproval of administration’s choice to search through Twitter. “Fourteen cop cars and dog search is epitome of WA problems, do you not want us to graduate? #goodluckeveryone.”
One student made light of the situation: “Hide yo pot kiddiez.”
Antonelli concluded by saying, “Our goal is to try to keep [drugs] out of the school.”
