Friday, Oct. 11, in the middle of second hour there was a last-minute announcement from principal Tom Leitz stating there would be a canine and police officer search throughout the school. Students were restricted from leaving classrooms for any reason, and were told to wait until the search was over with. The officers were to search lockers and halls with the highly trained dogs to find any traces of drug related products.

Some students  in class could hear the canines after they had found something, and even the officers searching lockers and following procedures. One student, sophomore Mikhail Herbig, is one of many that had experienced this.

“I was in weight training, and out of nowhere I heard a dog barking loud, then a locker slammed and an officer said ‘all clear’,” Herbig said. “At first I thought someone had got caught but after that I didn’t know.”

This search is not the first time this has been done. Last year in the spring was the first search with canines involved, which it was announced early on to parents and students. Since then the trend has been about the same in what has been found and what consequences those caught had faced.

“We found mostly vape products,” school resource officer Jacob Lukas said, “most containing nicotine and some THC vapes.”

After having found the drugs, officers then found the students who were in relation to the products discovered. Those caught faced a full 10-day suspension, or, if they took and passed a drug course, they could have a reduced suspension of five days.

So far,these searches have been seemingly effective in lessening the use of vape products among minors, according to Lukas. The searches, as long as they prove useful, will continued to be used in the future.