On the morning of December 16, students and teachers followed the standard lock-down procedure while the Reading Police Department (RPD) and the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit did a full sweep of RMHS hallways, lockers and random classrooms, searching for illegal narcotics.  This lockdown was an unannounced occurrence, and lasted about 35 minutes.

      According to RMHS Safety Officer Santasky, initial planning for the lockdown began last September, and the entire project took a couple of months to organize.  “It was at the request of the superintendent that we contacted the k-9 unit that normally does the Middlesex Sheriff’s office, so he asked us, which I in turn contacted them, and planned it through them,” said Santasky. 

     On the day of the lockdown, “we had the sheriff, or the officer for that floor, pick random classrooms,” reported Santasky.  Classes that were selected for searching were entirely up to the discretion of the k-9 handler to ensure that certain students or classrooms were not targeted.  Santasky assures that “k-9 officers were not briefed of who goes here, or what classroom was which… We had them pick [the rooms] so it was unbiased.”    

    Overall, Santasky believes the procedure went well, and fast, considering the size of the school: “I think it went exactly the way  as we planned it.  It was in accordance with the school policy on search and seizure. We did it exactly the way it was written. There was no confusion, there was an excess amount of time; it was actually done a little bit quicker than it normally is.” 

    Students reacted differently to the lockdown.  After the initial shock of the loudspeaker announcement, and the sound of dogs in the hallways, students sat in curiosity for the 35 minutes.  One senior says she could see the all the officers from where she has class overlooking Main Street; “It was scary,” she responded.   Julia Werth (’13) believes that “it’s probably a good idea to have a drug search occasionally in a high school.”

     According to Santasky, this type of procedure is a “tool” that is commonly used in many schools.  Many schools carry out a similar method once a year, if not twice.  As for whether it will happen again, Officer Santasky said, “It’s at [the superintendent’s] discretion.  If he asks to do it again, we could do it again this year, if he says I want until two more years… he knows to contact us and we contact the police dogs.”

     Overall, Santasky was satisfied with how the lockdown and k-9 search went last December.  “It’s very unintrusive,” he commented, “We cater to the student’s needs; I think we kept the dogs away from the students, and we didn’t violate anyone’s rights; we did it per the letter of the law, as well as the school policy.”