A Whitehorse woman is set to ask the Yukon Supreme Court Tuesday to bar a drug-sniffing dog from her daughter's high school, arguing that the girl's allergies will force her to drop out of Grade 11 if the dog patrols the school.
Porter Creek Secondary School is preparing to introduce the drug-detection dog and its handler, a drug awareness worker, in its hallways next week.
But the woman, who has asked not to be named, says her 15-year-old daughter suffers from severe pet allergies. According to her court affidavit, the woman says the girl had an accidental brush with a dog last month that sent her to the hospital.
"She's been put in a position where she has to make a decision between her daughter's health and the risk of a severe allergic reaction of sending her to school," Whitehorse lawyer Charlene Dumont, who is representing the woman, told CBC News on Monday.
"Unfortunately she really doesn't have a lot of choice. If the dog is in the school, the girl will not be."
2007-09-11 08:09:30 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
CHARITY G
Whitehorse and the entire Territories of Canada (all three of them) are huge and have no people in them
To give you an idea the 3 teritories up there are about the size of the US but with 200,000 in them - total between all 3
So the girl probably could not just go to another school -
But the more I read the answers here
It does sound suspicious - Medication and so on should fix some if not all of the problem
2007-09-11 08:22:14 · update #1
This is acutally pretty easy. I have no idea why it's gone to the supreme court.
ANSWER:
1) Have the girl's teacher prepare the work necessary for that day in advance.
2) Allow her to miss school and stay home to get her work done.
3) The rest of the school carries on as usual.
4) Have the janitor at the school clean after the dog leaves.
5) Resume classes as usual the next day.
CONDITIONAL ANSWERS:
If the school is concerned about this girl in regards to the drugs, have the dog sniff her locker and backpack while she's out. Then give her a new backpack when she returns.
Done.
It's amazing that our society is so wrapped up in a "tunnel-vision"-like view of ourselves and our "rights" that no one sees the common sense solution to these things. Sadly, not even the courts.
2007-09-11 08:20:33 · answer #1 · answered by Randall W 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋
It all depends on who has the best attorney. You could make reasonable points for either one winning. In reality the dog would not be allowed in the school. This would be based on the following reasoning. The state mandates education. The state acts as the sole provider of education and has a duty to provide a safe environment for the students. The girl would fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act which would require the school to make its buildings accessible to the disabled girl. In this case the disability is an allergy to dogs. Dogs are not a requirement of and education and hence they have no legal protection in keeping it in the school.
Many schools forbid children from bringing peanut butter sandwiches to school because some students have severe allergies to peanuts. This would be very close to this situation.
The bottom line is there are equally effective methods of drug detection beyond a dog, such as locker checks.
And regardless of how allergic she is, she could also simply suffer from cynophobia (fear of dogs) in which case if it is documented by a doctor then it would also fall into the ADA and the school would not be allowed to have the dog in any area that it might cause an anxiety attack by the girl...
In the end isnt' the ADA a great law?
2007-09-11 08:22:24 · answer #2 · answered by IG64 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not as if the dog will be sitting right next to her in class. Drug-sniffing dogs patrol the hallways and locker areas, as well as making their rounds outdoors when she can't possibly be bothered.
I side with the law on this one. Give the child Benadryl and send her off to school. The safety of the masses exceed the sneezing of one.
2007-09-11 08:15:38 · answer #3 · answered by kja63 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
My gut reaction is that the girl's Mom is a drug dealer, and that the girl is a mule (i.e. she takes the drugs to the school), so they came up with this to keep drug dogs out of the school. If the girl is in fact that sensitive, she would be reacting to pet hair left on other students too, unless they have a school where no one has any pets, which I find extremely unlikely. I would organize it so that the kid was allowed to be absent on days where drug searches were to take place.
2007-09-11 08:14:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
I'm sure there are other schools the girl could attend. Home-schooling is an option as well. The school would benefit greatly by eliminating the presence of drugs. Usually the needs of the many do far outweigh the needs of the one.
2007-09-11 08:15:05 · answer #5 · answered by NoAmnesty4U 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
well.......I have to say I agree with "hooray" on this one. I am deathly allergic to rabbits, so much so that if someone has a pet rabbit in their house and I bump into them in a mall, I have an attack albeit a mild one. If they've held their rabbit and then I'm in a meeting with them, I need immediate medical care.
I have difficulty believing that everyone who owns a dog in her school washes their clothes and then runs straight out of the house in the morning -- I have always thanked the creator that it is rabbits I'm allergic to and not dogs or cats, otherwise, I'd be in serious medical trouble.
THAT's why I have difficulty believing this person -- her allergies obviously aren't as bad as mine, otherwise she would have already reacted to the hair on PEOPLE, backpacks, and so on.
2007-09-11 08:18:53 · answer #6 · answered by Marlon M 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
If the girl is so sensitive to animals then why doesn't she get sick from sharing a classroom with pet owners? I should think she would be in close proximity to someone virtually covered in cat/dog hair while at school nearly every day.
2007-09-11 08:17:51 · answer #7 · answered by Lavrenti Beria 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I say let the dog in the school. The kid can take medication for that allergy. My niece has the same thing and her medicine works fine, she can hang out with our cats and my dog and it doesn't effect her unless she has not taken it.
2007-09-11 08:15:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Can they just arrange transportation for another school? I think that would be a fair resolution.
Offer to pay for the medication and make arrangements to keep the dog away from her . . .
2007-09-11 08:18:28 · answer #9 · answered by CHARITY G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The girl will have to leave. She cannot expect the administration to give up security for the rest of the students and staff.
2007-09-11 08:13:36 · answer #10 · answered by regerugged 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋