On Wednesday, November 8, 2023, we held our third routine campus safety check of the school year. These safety checks are completed in conjunction with our partners from K9 Proactive along with their trained search dogs and consist of a sweep of classrooms, locker rooms, offices, and the parking lot. The K9 Proactive dogs are trained to detect explosives, alcohol, gunpowder, prescription drugs that can be abused, illicit drugs, and other substances that are banned from school property. It should be noted that an “alert” on a particular backpack or car does not mean that a banned substance was present because the dogs are also able to detect a latent odor of these substances for a significant time after they have been removed from a backpack, car, or other location. In fact, our experience has been that most “alerts” do not produce any illicit or banned substances currently in a student’s possession. The parents of any student that the dogs identify as possibly having come in contact with a banned substance will always be contacted for further follow-up as necessary.

The purpose of these safety sweeps is to be proactive in doing our best to keep our campus free of any banned substances. We will continue to conduct these sweeps throughout the year so students are able to come to school feeling safe and confident that we are being proactive in our attempts to provide a learning environment that is being monitored for the presence of banned substances on campus in an effort to keep those substances away from our students. We are glad to report that Wednesday’s safety check went very smoothly; we greatly appreciate our students’ commitment to ensuring a safe environment for all.