K-9 Search at Mahar Today

Sent to All Local News Agencies, October 6, 2010

At 9:40 AM on October 6, 2010 the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School’s Administration in conjunction with the Orange Police Department conducted a K-9 search of the Regional School. K-9 Handlers from the Towns of Belchertown and Montague assisted Orange Police Officer, Clay Rushford in the search of the Mahar facility. Mahar Superintendent, Michael Baldassarre indicated that K-9 searches are done routinely in at Mahar Regional to ensure that students are discouraged from bringing substances to school. “We do all that we can to discourage substance abuse. Substance use is counterproductive to all that we do in school, and we take measures to communicate this to our students” said Baldassarre.

The students and staff are accustomed to K-9 searches of lockers and other public areas of the building. Searches such as these can take place several times during a school year. Today’s search was slightly different from those in the past, however. On April 6, 2010 the Ralph C. Mahar Regional School Committee approved a policy that allows canines to enter and search classrooms once they are cleared of students and staff. Since the K-9 is trained to sniff the air in common areas, searches such as these have been ruled by the United States Supreme Court to be a non-intrusive way to search public facilities for drugs and illegal contraband.

“Today’s search included four randomly selected classrooms. I am happy to report that no drugs or contraband were discovered and there was no need to question a single student” said Mahar Principal Scott Hemlin. Should the K-9 have been alerted by the smell around any locker or personal belonging, the Mahar administration would then follow a protocol that was also approved by the school committee in April, 2010. Today though, there was no need to continue with any further investigation. School Resource Officer, Chad Softic would not comment on when the next search of the facility will take place.