MOUNT VERNON — A search for drugs at Mount Vernon High School this morning turned up nothing.
High School Principal Kathy Kasler said it has been a couple of years since the last search of the school and that today’s search was a routine periodic check. She contacted the Mount Vernon Police Department, which enlisted the aid of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Criminal Interdiction team which has dogs trained in drug detection.
Three dog handlers, Troopers Kurt Keller and Bruce McLainne from the Cambridge Post and Gary Wolfe from the Bucyrus Post, along with Sgt. Rich Logsdon, also from Bucyrus Post, made up the team. When the search began, all students were kept in classrooms, then were told to place their book bags in a row in the hallways.
The dogs were taken past the bags, but nothing was detected. When the dog sniffed the lockers, two sets got “hits” from the dogs. But a thorough search of the lockers turned up nothing. Troopers explained that students could have been smoking marijuana and an odor left on clothing could be detected by the dogs.
Assisting in the search were Mount Vernon Police Department Detective Sgt. Jeff Jacobs, and Detectives Craig Fenney and Matt Dailey. School officials present were Security Officer Rick Day and assistant principals John Frye and Sam Shuman. The search took about 90 minutes.
