Union high school to introduce search dogs today

The new security measures have four legs and will wag their tails almost on demand.  “We felt like we needed to look at many ways we could increase our school safety and security and this idea came up” Union director of Secondary Education Chuck Perry told KRMG.

Perry said with the tragedy in Connecticut made everyone take a hard look at their security measures “the more we looked into it we thought it was a perfect fit for our school district to keep students safe, staff safe, and patrons safe.”

Perry assured us the dogs will not be big, snarling, mean beasts “the dogs used will be along the lines of Golden Retrievers, Labrador Retrievers it’s not a menacing type dog at all.”

Listen here as Chuck Perry describes how the program will work.

And he added they won’t interact with the students directly “the dogs won’t sniff people.” So what will they be looking for? “Firearms, gunpowder, alcohol, and any illegal drugs” Perry said. And if they find something there will be no loud display “if a dog hits on a location they passively sit.”

Perry told us the search area will include more than just the hallways “the parking lots, classrooms, locker banks, common areas, cafeteria” will all be looked at and the searches will be random.

Perry said this sends a message. “I can’t say we’re going to stop it 24 hours a day but we want to say once you come on Union campus those things will not be allowed.”

Perry made it clear that the program is starting at the high school but might not end there “we’ll talk about how it goes in the summer and I can see us expanding this to other campuses if it goes as well as we think it will.”