Bay District Schools gets drug detecting K-9
Students and administrators at Bay District Schools told NewChannel 7 they are looking forward to feeling safer on campus with the introduction of Odessa, Bay District Schools’ first K-9 officer.
“I’m excited to be able to have her on campus,” said Britt Smith, the principal at Arnold High School. “And being able to come to our school and visit and make certain that we have a safe learning environment for all of our students”
Odessa is trained to sniff out not only drugs such as narcotics and marijuana but also firearms.
” I know that our students want a safe learning environment,” said Smith” and I think whenever they realize that the commitment of Bay district schools is to utilize every tool that there is to make certain that happens, that they’re going to be very happy to see her”
Odessa’s handler, Lieutenant Jason Klingensmith, is a district K-9 Officer with Bay District Schools. He said that he is passionate about his work with police dogs and is looking forward to the future with Odessa.
“We’re going to have a long future together,” said Klingensmith, “I mean, she’s very young so we’re going to be working for several years together. The first step is she’s going to have to learn all these different schools, it’s a whole different world from training one-on-one and going to a different area, but now she’ll have the opportunity to get familiar with these schools and know all the little hiding spots.”
Odessa hasn’t started visiting the schools quite yet but is already stealing the hearts of everyone she meets.
“Everybody fell in love with her,” Klingensmith shared, “(they) want to love on her and give her attention because I mean she’s got the cute little fluffy ears and fluffy tail, she’s very gentle.”
School officials said Odessa’s visits will be random, and not even the administrators will know before she visits. Odessa’s official start date is still TBD.
https://www.wjhg.com/2025/01/10/bay-district-schools-gets-drug-detecting-k-9/