A Maui school is poised to become the first public school in the state to bring drug-sniffing dogs onto its campus, pending assurances from the state attorney general's office that it will represent school officials if there is litigation.

Maui complex area superintendent Ron Okamura yesterday told a Board of Education committee that Lahaina Intermediate School was very interested in the program and that a parent survey has been very positive.

"I'm for the program," Okamura said, "but I want to make sure my principals and the department are going to be covered legally in case there is litigation."

Board members disagree on how much authority area superintendents have to bring drug-sniffing dogs onto their campuses, and expect to have a fuller discussion on the subject shortly.

However, one member yesterday strongly encouraged Okamura to go forward. Another called for caution.

"Don't waste time. Go for it," said board member Mary Cochran of Maui. "What's the worst that's going to happen? You're going to get your wrist slapped or you're going to get sued."

Board member Herbert Watanabe suggested that the Maui schools ought to try the program out.

However, Denise Matsumoto said that she felt the board ought to put it on the agenda to have a full discussion of the subject.

Yesterday's committee meeting was designed to look at how the department is implementing the board's no-tolerance policy for alcohol and illicit drug use and distribution on public school campuses.

Okamura said the principals of two Maui schools, Lahaina Intermediate and Lahainaluna High, are interested in seeing the program put in place to protect students.

"We're looking at it more as a deterrent to create a safer environment," he said. "We talk of safe campuses and providing a safe learning environment and this is the way we can do it. It impressed me to see a dog in action."

Two O'ahu private schools, Academy of the Pacific and Saint Louis School, have used contraband-sniffing dogs for more than a year.

Lahaina Intermediate has had a demonstration of a drug-sniffing dog's abilities at the school, and parents have been supportive, he said. Meanwhile, a demonstration by the dog is scheduled at Lahainaluna in the next month, and parents there will be surveyed as well.

Okamura said as much as he and the principals want the program, if the attorney general's opinion excludes school administrators and officials from being represented in a lawsuit, that could stop implementation.

"If the AG won't represent us, Mike Nakano, the Lahainaluna principal, said he doesn't want the program," Okamura said.

Okamura expects to provide the attorney general's office with additional data on lawsuits from Whitney White, who owns Interquest Detection Canines of Hawai'i, which also has been working for two Hawai'i private schools and a number of hotels and private businesses. White, who appeared at the meeting with Okamura, said in the company's 25-year history across the country, it has never lost a court case.

White said the company operates in 26 states, 1,200 public school districts and 500 private schools across the country.

"As far as the issues with the courts, it's a privacy issue," she said.

Generally, the areas where drug-sniffing is conducted are student parking lots, student lockers, backpacks, clothing, and even school supplies on desks in random rooms. Whitney said crystal meth can be carried in a pen.

"We are not allowed to sniff people," she said. "It is not in our protocol at all."

The dogs can detect illicit drugs, alcohol and gun powder.

White told the board that she had the backing of Maui businesses to support the cost of putting the program into some Maui schools.

"Our focus is deterrence," White told the committee. "Detection happens and all of a sudden drugs are off campus. In the second year, contraband drops by 70 percent."

During the meeting, board members expressed support for a resolution passed at the recent Secondary Student Conference asking the state Legislature and the Board of Education to provide more resources both to treat Hawai'i young people for drug abuse as well as to educate them before abuse occurs.

And they expressed concern for what Cochran called "alarming" statistics cited by the students. According to the State Health Department, 4,268 adolescents in Honolulu County and 3,798 in Hawai'i, Maui and Kaua'i counties required treatment for drug abuse in 1996, the most recent data students could uncover.

However, a 2002 survey showed that 2,245 students out of 28,610 surveyed admitted they needed treatment for either alcohol or drug abuse or both.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com.