Manu
07-31-2002, 01:42 PM
SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) -- Officials at a South Dakota school confined students to their classrooms for several hours while a police dog toured the rooms, sniffing children as young as 6 to check for drugs, according to a lawsuit filed against the school.
The German shepherd got off its leash in a kindergarten classroom at the Wagner Community School and chased students during the May search, the court papers allege. They claim some students started crying and at least one urinated involuntarily.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls by the parents of 17 elementary and high school students, wants such activity declared a violation of the constitutional right against unreasonable searches. It also seeks unspecified damages and an order stopping the practice.
Repeated attempts by The Associated Press to reach Wagner Principal Neil Goter and school board officials were unsuccessful Thursday. Kenneth Cotton, the school district's lawyer, told The New York Times he could not comment on the allegations specifically, but he said he had talked to two students who told him the dog visited their classrooms only briefly and "in an orderly way."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in the class-action lawsuit, alleged that the Wagner School Board approved the search. The school board is named as a defendant, along with former Wagner Police Chief Richard Volk and Neil McCaleb, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department.
The lawsuit alleges that a similar drug-dog search was conducted a few days after the first one.
Some students experienced physical discomfort when they were not allowed to go to the bathroom for several hours during the searches, according to the lawsuit. It says students were told not to pet the dog, not to look at it or make any sudden movements, and some students feared the dog would bite them.
In a news release, Jennifer Ring, executive director of the Dakotas chapter of the ACLU, said, "The very notion of there being a drug problem in kindergarten is ridiculous."
The lawsuit is the latest episode in a dispute between the ACLU and the school board in Wagner, 85 miles southwest of Sioux Falls. In March, the ACLU sued the board, alleging the school system's method of selecting board members discriminates against American Indians.
The 17 students filing the latest lawsuit are Indian, the ACLU said.
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The German shepherd got off its leash in a kindergarten classroom at the Wagner Community School and chased students during the May search, the court papers allege. They claim some students started crying and at least one urinated involuntarily.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls by the parents of 17 elementary and high school students, wants such activity declared a violation of the constitutional right against unreasonable searches. It also seeks unspecified damages and an order stopping the practice.
Repeated attempts by The Associated Press to reach Wagner Principal Neil Goter and school board officials were unsuccessful Thursday. Kenneth Cotton, the school district's lawyer, told The New York Times he could not comment on the allegations specifically, but he said he had talked to two students who told him the dog visited their classrooms only briefly and "in an orderly way."
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is involved in the class-action lawsuit, alleged that the Wagner School Board approved the search. The school board is named as a defendant, along with former Wagner Police Chief Richard Volk and Neil McCaleb, assistant secretary of Indian Affairs in the Interior Department.
The lawsuit alleges that a similar drug-dog search was conducted a few days after the first one.
Some students experienced physical discomfort when they were not allowed to go to the bathroom for several hours during the searches, according to the lawsuit. It says students were told not to pet the dog, not to look at it or make any sudden movements, and some students feared the dog would bite them.
In a news release, Jennifer Ring, executive director of the Dakotas chapter of the ACLU, said, "The very notion of there being a drug problem in kindergarten is ridiculous."
The lawsuit is the latest episode in a dispute between the ACLU and the school board in Wagner, 85 miles southwest of Sioux Falls. In March, the ACLU sued the board, alleging the school system's method of selecting board members discriminates against American Indians.
The 17 students filing the latest lawsuit are Indian, the ACLU said.
www.cnn.com