At the conclusion of the current school year, the Medicine Hat Police Service will be discontinuing the Dogs for Drug Free Schools program. The program was initiated in the spring of 2005 when two seven week old Labrador retrievers were introduced into the Medicine Hat school systems. The program was intended to raise students’ awareness regarding the consequences of drug use, plus deter drug use and possession of drugs in the school environment. Additionally, the presence of the dogs promoted opportunity for student and police officer interaction.
Over the past six years the dogs, Fiddler and Lilo have aided in building relationships between students and School Resource Officers, encouraged school spirit and opened avenues to discuss drug issued amongst students and parents. However with advancing age both dogs are experiencing health issues and as such need to retire from service. After extensive deliberations the Service has made the difficult decision to discontinue the program as it is not feasible to maintain.
In the past, many local organizations and businesses, who recognized that drug use in the schools was not just a school issue but also a community issue, provided financial support for the program. At the conclusion of the current school year, the balance of funds ($2300) held in reserve for the Dogs For Drug Free School program will be transferred to the care of the Medicine Hat Safe Community Association (MHSCA). The MHSCA will use the funds to support the continued delivery of the newly developed Encouraging Positive Informed Choices (EPIC) program in the schools. The focus of the EPIC program is to provide students with information to assist them in making positive informed choices about current issues which will affect their lives. EPIC has age specific lesson plans targeted at students in Grades 4, 6 and 8.
The Medicine Hat Police Service would like to thank the community for the past support of the Dogs for Drug Free Schools program and for the ongoing support of our other community programs.
