By Alex Wyckoff
Staff Writer
The Manhattan Beach Police Department came to Costa on Nov. 8 and again on November 17 with trained dogs that sniffed for illegal drugs and other substances within student or teacher possession on campus.
Each year at Mira Costa, the MBPD brings its drug dogs onto campus and pass by lockers, vehicles, backpacks, and classrooms across the entirety of the campus, to sniff for drugs, and also other illegal items.
During these two most recent searches, no drugs were found within the possession of either students or teachers after a thorough search in nearly a dozen classrooms per visit, and across locker halls and the parking lot.
“Students know that the campus is not a place to bring drugs,” Dale said, “Since I have been at Costa, the dogs have hit on drugs once. It was a car in the parking lot.”
Though rumors circulate about the next drug dog arrival, the official schedule is not released outside of police and administration, so that any within possession of drugs will not be able to simply prepare by hiding them.
“We do not publish the schedule,” Dale said. “It could be any day.”
The number of classrooms that the drug dogs investigate varies with each visit, though the number tends to stay within 8-10 classrooms.
“We check both classrooms and cars on campus,” head of campus security Ray Lee said.
How often something turns up on Campus also varies based on the visit, though usually little to nothing turns up at Costa, according to Lee.
“Sometimes we are able to find contraband, sometimes the dogs turn up nothing,” Lee said.
The dogs do occasionally make mistakes, like when they sniff out prescription drugs or other substances that have similar smells to what they’re searching for.
“They’ve never caught anybody in one of my classes,” junior Nicole Potvin said, “But one time they sniffed my backpack because I had Neosporin.”
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