[420 Girl]

When school officials in Canton allowed police officers to search the hallways and parking lots at the middle school and the high school with drug-sniffing dogs last June, their effort netted the arrest of one student found with a small amount of marijuana.

But the search also resulted in a long-running discussion in the community about whether the school was violating students' rights by using a longstanding but rarely employed school board policy that allowed school officials to lock students in their classrooms as it searched for drugs.

After a handful of parents and the American Civil Liberties Union complained that the drug sweeps were disruptive and heavy-handed, the school board temporarily suspended the policy until it could be reviewed. The board is now reviewing possible changes to the policy, and a vote is expected in the next few weeks.

Drug-sniffing dogs are better suited for crime scenes, not public schools, which are supposed to be places of learning, places of trust," Jon Matthews, A.C.L.U.'s legal director in Connecticut, told the school board at a hearing earlier this month. "It creates an atmosphere that makes students look like suspects."

During the sweep, on June 5, 15 high school students were pulled out of class to watch as officers searched their lockers or cars.

Jane Latus said her daughter, now a freshman in college, was pulled out of class on that June morning and escorted to her locker to watch as it was surrounded by three or four police officers. "One officer kept his hand on his gun the whole time, which scared her," Mrs. Latus said outside a school board meeting earlier this month. The search did not turn up drugs in her locker, her mother and school officials said.State school officials knew of no other schools that were exercising their right to use dogs to sniff out drugs in Connecticut.

Vincent Mustaro, senior policy adviser at the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said he did not routinely send the policy that allows such searches to school boards because few have ever requested it. "It's a minority of school boards, definitely not a majority," Mr. Mustaro said in a phone interview last week. "They're more interested in video surveillance than dogs."

In Canton, the sweep may have been well-intentioned, but "it was carried out so ineptly," Mrs. Latus said.

Elisa Villa, a criminal defense lawyer and mother of three students at the schools, said in a phone interview earlier this month that the board's policy provides for searches when necessary. She said the policy's restrictive language "when necessary" is intended to "prevent such capricious conduct on the part of Canton's superintendent of schools."

All you can do as educators and parents is let your kids know about the health and legal risks associated with drug use," Mrs. Villa said. "Arresting kids for drugs doesn't prevent them from doing drugs. They should deal with it as a health issue, not a criminal issue."

The A.C.L.U. of Connecticut also said that the way the practice is carried out -- with only lockers and parking lots subject to searches - -- students with drugs can still go undetected.

This means that students wishing to bring drugs to school can easily avoid these sweeps by storing drugs on their persons," Mr. Matthews said.

Susan Crowe, the Canton school board member in charge of the policy committee, said the committee is drafting a policy that "respects students' individual rights, while keeping the general student body safe." While there were committee members willing to consider rescinding the policy, "we thought it was better to work with the policy," she said.

Kevin Witkos, a state representative and Canton police officer involved in the June drug sweep, said he thought the policy was "effective in that the student body knows it could happen again." He said schools have to use every tool they can to deter drug use and keep drugs off school grounds.

Kevin D. Case, the schools superintendent, said the drug sweeps "are just one piece of the puzzle as we work to keep the middle school and high schools a safe, drug-free zone."

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