The state Board of Education last night postponed a final decision on a proposal to allow locker searches "without reason or cause" and the use of drug-sniffing dogs on public school campuses.

After hearing testimony both for and against the proposed changes to the school disciplinary code, the board voted to send the matter back to its special programs committee, Department of Education spokesman Greg Knudsen said.

The board wants the state Attorney General's Office to come up with an alternative to the "without reason or cause" wording that has prompted opposition.

"What this policy assumes is that students are all drug dealers, they're all alcoholics," Jon Van Dyke, a professor with the University of Hawai'i's William S. Richardson School of Law, testified earlier in the evening.

Van Dyke, co-author of "Checklists for Searches and Seizures in Public Schools," a guide used by school districts nationwide, told board members that searches of lockers without cause would be "a revolutionary change" and would violate repeated Supreme Court rulings on students' rights.

Board members followed up with nearly an hour of questioning of Van Dyke.

"If you took an oath to uphold the state Constitution as a Board of Education member, would you be in violation of that oath by supporting this proposal?" asked member Kim Coco Iwamoto, holding up a framed copy of her BOE certificate.

"You are an official of the state of Hawai'i and you are obliged to uphold the Constitution," Van Dyke replied.

Board member Maggie Cox said administrators need extra authority to keep drugs and weapons out of schools. But she didn't say whether she thought locker searches and drug-sniffing dogs are the answer.

"I'm just looking for another tool to help our administrators. I'm not trying to take away the rights of kids," Cox said.

Over the past several months, board members have been wrestling with whether administrators should be allowed to conduct searches "without reason or cause." That language was originally recommended by the state attorney general's office and at one point a board committee had declined to give principals that authority.

But two weeks ago, a board committee restored the "with or without reason or cause" phrase.

Niu Valley Middle School principal Justin Mew told board members last night that he supported the revisions to the disciplinary code, also known as Chapter 19.

"It has the potential to make a positive impact," he said.

Disciplinary rules now allow school officials to search lockers "only when the health and safety of a person or persons would be endangered if a search or seizure is not carried out."

Officials say the proposed changes were not prompted by an increase in contraband items seized at schools. Instead, officials said they first began considering revisions to Chapter 19 rules to address the advent of cyberbullying and because the rules have not been changed since 2001.

Earlier this year, three Maui district schools — Lahainaluna High School, Lahaina Intermediate School and Lana'i High & Elementary School — participated in a pilot program in which specially trained dogs were used to detect drugs, alcohol and guns.

Whitney White, who owns Interquest Detection Canines of Hawaii, the private company that conducted the dog searches, testified to the board about the benefits of drug-sniffing dogs on campuses.

She reiterated that she believes dog-sniffs do not constitute a search. Van Dyke, however, said previous court rulings "assume" that dog-sniffs are a form of search.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.