The Lake Chelan and Manson School Districts are among six districts in North Central Washington that will allow school resource officers to partner with K-9 Kait and Deputy Jacob Lewis, the Chelan County Jail’s narcotics-detecting dog and her handler.
The agreement allow for school resource officers to call the Jail and request that the dog and her handler come to a school if the officer has reasonable suspicion that a student has brought narcotics onto campus. K-9 Kait could be used to walk around lockers, cars, backpacks or school perimeters. If she alerts on a trained odor, the school resource officer and school district will review any finds from the search and handle next steps.
At the Community Meeting in Late January at the Chelan 7 Fire Station, Jail Director Chris Sharp expected the agreement allowing her use in schools:
Sharp called K-9 Kait the jail's “home run,” a key component to the jail’s narcotics detection program, which aims to stop drugs from getting into the county jail.
K-9 Kait is trained to detect cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and most recently, fentanyl.
In addition, the schools have agreed to allow Deputy Lewis to do training sessions in the schools with Kait.
Besides Lake Chelan and Manson schools, the other districts that signed the agreement last month were the Waterville, Eastmont, Bridgeport, and Entiat school districts.