FALLBROOK: Officials say new security measures 'sign of the times'

Drug-sniffing dog, new fence part of plan to beef up safety, crack down on offenders

By TOM PFINGSTEN - Staff Writer | Saturday, May 24, 2008 5:15 PM PDT ∞

FALLBROOK ---- The two newest features at Fallbrook High School, a high-strung German shepherd and a fence, don't seem to have any connection.

But when a drug-sniffing police canine begins roaming the halls and when crews install a partition along the front of this tight-knit town's only high school, officials said last week, both will be means to the same end: curbing crime.

The new security measures were approved by the school board in recent months, fueling worries within this small community that crime and drug use at the 2,800-student campus are on the rise.

Officials paint a different picture, however, saying the problems they aim to address have existed for years, and that by bringing in a Sheriff's Department canine unit and installing the fence, they're just catching up to security measures already enacted at other North County campuses.

"Are there drugs on our campus? Yeah, I would feel safe to say there are drugs on any high school campus," said Principal Rod King. "If you consider that there are drugs on this campus, then that is a drug problem. But is it any more or any less (than in previous years)? No. It's just an issue that we're addressing."

Students and parents depict a high school troubled by crimes ranging from restroom drug use to parking lot vandalism, and officials don't deny it.

Among those who fill the classrooms and the cafeteria, though, opinions vary on whether it's getting worse.

Michael Melitz, a 17-year-old senior, said that he was shocked to come out of school last fall and find his 1996 Dodge Ram pickup vandalized.

"There was absolutely no point in it," Melitz recalled. "There's just no respect for property or anything like that."

He agreed with others who say that drugs are probably the worst problem facing the high school.

But he said the $5,600 worth of damage to his truck that day left the impression that campus crime is getting worse. "I didn't really notice vandalism in the parking lots until this year," he said.

Officials said that kind of incident is exactly what they aim to curb with the fence that's going up this summer ---- and exactly why it's needed.

As for the young man who walked out of class to find he had become the victim of a random crime leveled the truck he inherited from his dad, he said he's learned his lesson.

"I set my alarm now," said Melitz, even though "there's not really anything to steal in my truck."

Existing woes, new fixes

On May 12, the school board approved a proposal to bring a drug-sniffing dog onto campus periodically. The move was the latest security measure to draw curious attention from those who recall a tranquil Fallbrook of citrus groves and one stoplight in the 1960s.

Amid the ensuing media attention, officials were careful to say that the idea was not spurred by a spike in drug use or possession, pointing out that statistics on such crimes are not compiled until the end of the school year.

"We want to use any means available to ensure there are no drugs on campus, and the dog is just one way to do that," King said. "It doesn't mean there's any more than there have been in the past."

Marc Steffler, a high school board member who served as principal at the alternative Ivy High School for 18 years, then at Fallbrook High for five years until 2003, said he agrees with King's assessment.

"I sit on the board and look at the number of drug expulsions that come across our desk, and I think our numbers look like a normal high school," he said. "It's not a falling-apart campus, I don't feel that for a moment."

But Rochelle Melitz, whose son drives the pickup that was vandalized last fall, said that between that incident and the time when her daughter's cell phone was stolen out of her backpack during class, she's fed up.

"It is an epidemic," said Melitz, who described herself as a squeaky wheel who has butted heads with campus authorities over security issues.

"I think what they need to do is, be more open with the parents," she went on. "There's a great group of parents out there who would bend over backward to help the school."

For now, officials are counting on the drug-sniffing canine to root out drugs, and on the impending campus fence that will front Stage Coach Lane and funnel visitors to a single entrance.

"If you had one place where people have to enter and exit from, you've got some control," King said. "I'm going to feel like our students are a lot safer."

He said he's aware that some people in Fallbrook may be offended by the fence, but described it as a necessary step that most other high schools in the area have already taken.

"I've talked to quite a few of the (high school) staff who would've been completely opposed to a fence if it was years ago, but I think everyone recognizes, this is the day and age that we live in," he said.

Steffler, who has lived in Fallbrook for more than 20 years and watched the community evolve, said the beefed-up security was inevitable.

"I think times have changed everywhere," said Steffler. "What students now think is OK and acceptable has changed dramatically."

Dog searches

Steffler now directs an alternative high school in the San Marcos Unified School District, where officials have had drug-sniffing dogs search all three high school campuses for years.

"I think it's a good thing," he said of the drug dog. "It's a message ---- it allows the students to know that we care, we won't allow these things to happen."

Jim Esterbrooks, spokesman for the San Diego County Office of Education, said that several other high schools around the county use drug-sniffing dogs to discourage students from bringing illegal substances to school.

"It's not unheard of, by any stretch," said Esterbrooks, calling the move "a bold step."

"There's going to be debate on any aggressive tactic," he said. "It's really important for kids to be drug-free, and there's no place on any campus for drugs or any other contraband."

So far, few have spoken out against the idea of a drug-sniffing dog being walked past lockers and into empty classrooms in search of illegal substances.

Even the student representative on the school board, senior Jovanna Vellone, praised the idea during the May 12 meeting.

"I will go in the bathroom and can't breathe," said Vellone. "It gets pretty bad at our high school. I think this will help a lot, because ... it's so damaging to their (students') health."

Steffler said the presence of drug-sniffing drugs at his high school in San Marcos has changed the way students and adults talk about drugs.

"It's the first time we've had an open conversation with our students about it," he said. "Once they see the dog going down the hallway, it's a new reality."

No matter what details of the plan are debated, everyone seems to agree on one point: "Hopefully, the dogs aren't going to find anything," said Esterbrooks.

"We really hope not to find anything here," said Lt. Alex Dominguez, who commands the Fallbrook Sheriff's Substation and oversees the canine unit that will be used at the high school.

"The whole object is for the dog not to find anything," King echoed. "That would mean we have a drug-free campus."

"Nothing else to do"

As the grown-ups try to figure out how to curb mischief and more harmful behavior that can get students expelled and even land them in jail, it's obvious that kids will be kids.

Michael Melitz said he thought his bad luck had passed when, on a recent Friday, some wise guy with a paint-ball gun sprayed the parking lot with paint-filled ammunition, hitting his ill-fated pickup and other vehicles.

"It looked like somebody went down the whole line of cars by the road and just paint-balled them all," he said with a mature disdain belying his age.

"Nothing else to do, I guess."

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.