By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
Days after law enforcement agencies from throughout the state converged on Hillsborough High School for a random sweep for illicit drugs, district officials discussed the multi-agency operation with the public., For a majority of the Hillsborough Township Board of Education’s meeting on Monday, Hillsborough Police Chief Darren Powell and Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor W. Brian Stack shared information and fielded questions from the public regarding the Feb. 3 search., “Our commitment to keeping drugs out of the high school is to make that point unequivocal … in order to keep our children healthy and safe,” Superintendent Dr. Jorden Schiff said., At approximately 7:45 a.m. that Friday morning, 50 personnel and 13 drug detection dogs from throughout the state were brought into the high school to conduct a sweep of the building., Officers, canine units and investigators from the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, the New Jersey State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bound Brook Police Department, Passaic County Sheriff’s Office, Morris County Sheriff’s Office and Hazlet Police Department were involved in the search., Police said the search included student vehicles parked at the school, as well as hallway lockers and nine randomly selected classrooms., Due to regulations regarding the use of drug-sniffing dogs in a school setting, students in those classrooms were removed from the room with their bags and backpacks left behind., Barring those disruptions, the police chief said the operation was largely done with minimal disruption to the high school’s learning environment, while also sending a clear message to the high school’s student body., “These activities are primarily a deterrent to keep kids from bringing drugs into the school,” Powell said., During the search, officials said the dogs gave two positive indications that they had found narcotics in a locker and a vehicle., Despite reports on various social media outlets that multiple arrests were made at the school as a result of the search, Powell said no drugs were found on school property, though he said he fully expected to., Some parents, in response, questioned the success of the search. Stack again assured that the measure was meant more to discourage students from bringing drugs to school in the first place., “I don’t think [the number of arrests is] necessarily the way to measure the success of a dog sweep,” he said., One common refrain that kept coming up during the discussion was the question of why these sweeps were so infrequent., According to Stack, there had been less than 10 such sweeps throughout Somerset County over the last 15 years. In Hillsborough, Powell recalled three such sweeps at the high school since he joined the police department in 1994., Of those three sweeps, only one arrest took place., A major reason why the sweeps are so infrequent is the amount of effort needed to coordinate a proper search team from various municipalities., That being said, Powell posited that the drug sweeps were not enough to address the issue of drug use among teenagers., “I don’t think a [k-9 sweep] is as effective a deterrent as drug education for the kids,” he said. “You can completely keep everything out of the schools, but it’s not going to change what they do when they leave school grounds and they’re off on the weekends doing their own thing.”, Along with the occasional search, the police department provides one full-time school resource officer at the high school., Hillsborough High School Principal Karen Binger said the district also works to educate its students on the dangers of drug use through its curriculum and on-site counselors that help students deal with drug-related issues., “Throughout the year, we run an assortment of assemblies for different grade levels that talk about the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. Our health classes … also target this issue,” she said. “We try to cover as many bases as we possibly can to keep our children healthy.”, Mike Reilly, a local parent and owner of Hillsborough Funeral Home, said he’s personally seen what drugs have done to youths and their families after drugs consumes their lives., “I’m getting pretty tired of conducting funerals due to drug overdose,” he said., Reilly said he and his fellow parents needed to get their “head out of the sand … and start owning it,” citing a need for families to discuss the issue and seek help when they need it., To that end, the local business owner offered to purchase and anonymously provide 100 at-home drug tests to anyone in Hillsborough to help ensure children are drug free., “Stop waiting until it’s too long and you have to call me for help, when you could have done something and called somewhere else for help,” Reilly said. “I’m getting tired of conducting funerals due to drug overdose. It’s real, it’s in our neighborhood, it’s Hillsborough. The sweep came up with nothing, but that doesn’t mean we’re drug free.”
