City manager's Blog

"Why Bob can't go to school."

Posted: 11/15/07

As a father of three children, I, like many of our fellow citizens, are concerned about the safety and conduct of our children in schools.  While I believe that the schools in Palm Bay are safe, we need to recognize that illegal drug use among students today is still prevalent.  Last year, the City approached the Brevard School system with the offer to pair non-aggressive canines with the assigned school resource officers at Southwest Middle School, Bayside High and Palm Bay High.  We were rebuffed on the basis that children may be allergic to the dogs or that the officer’s handling of the dog might take away their time from other duties in the school; these are positions that we disagree with.

Recently we placed, on a temporary and experimental basis, an officer and his canine at Palm Bay Community Charter School’s Patriot campus.  Faculty and students were receptive to the dog and no issues regarding the effort were reported.

By using these non-threatening dogs, we can provide a strong deterrent and constant message to students who wish to bring narcotics onto campus.  In addition, these dogs can be trained to sniff out weapons, providing just another layer of security to the school campus.

Last year I met with a group of 15 high school juniors and seniors from Bayside High.  All, but one, supported the idea of canines in their school.  When we surveyed the citizens of Palm Bay, we found that over 90% of our citizens supported or strongly-supported dogs in the schools.  I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this program.

Below is a guest editorial written by our Police Chief, Bill Berger.  The editorial appeared in the November 12th edition of Florida Today.

The passive dismissal of school security among those tasked to educate our children continues to baffle me.  It astounds me that in today's climate of violence, with very real threats to our way of life, that our security needs are not met with more vigilance. Take the case of Central Middle School in West Melbourne, which had six bomb threats in one month. In the first five incidents, the school was evacuated and building searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog. But the sixth time school administrators, who did not want further "disruptions," chose not to allow law enforcement officers to search the school. They claimed the staff had already dealt with the situation appropriately, a decision that potentially put the lives of our children at risk. Each threat, no matter how repetitious, needs to be handled with the same resolve as if it were the first and as if it were very real.

Last year I attended a special executive training given by the U.S. Secret Service focusing on school violence and the strong potential of terrorist attacks on our schools. Experts strongly believe our schools are a primary target on the terrorist radar. We need to take more measures to make our schools safe. As a chief who sits on a national committee on evolving new technologies, great strides have been made in detection of firearms and explosives. However, this technology is extremely expensive and as a result is not accessible to local jurisdictions or schools. But there is a non-technology alternative that is both cost effective and extremely popular. It involves the use of trained bomb and weapons detection K-9s that are also capable of drug detection. These dogs provide an all encompassing deterrent to violence and drug possession and should be based in our schools with trained law enforcement officers. These dogs are people- friendly Labrador retrievers, golden retrievers and beagles that produce a non-invasive, non-disruptive deterrent.

In a 2007 National Citizen Survey given to Palm Bay residents, 92 percent of the respondents supported the use of these dogs in our schools. Unfortunately, when we in Palm Bay attempted to introduce these loveable K-9s, the Brevard County school superintendent dismissed the idea, claiming, among other excuses, allergies or not having the proper facilities to secure the dogs on campus. Our school administrators should look no further than Martin County where dogs have been roaming the school hallways for years, acting mainly as a deterrent for drugs. The Martin County Sheriff's School Resource Officers use these dogs frequently to perform random checks of classrooms, lockers, backpacks, and parking lots, touting them as highly effective in their mission. The benefits of these specially trained K-9s compensate for the strong objections voiced by their opponents in Brevard County schools. Why not use the tools available to us to improve the safety of our schools and our children?

Let's not wait until there is a tragedy to do the right thing.

Click image to enlarge.
Photos (left to right): Officer Vienna & K-9 Bob, Officer Morris & K-9 Harley, Officer Smith & K-9 Jake

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Lee R. Feldman, ICMA-CM

City Manager
Phone (321) 952-3411
Fax (321) 952-3412
120 Malabar Road, SE
Palm Bay, FL 32907

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