CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — The Citrus County School District is bringing in a police dog to help curb the growing vape problem in schools.
The district's police chief said there was an uptick in the number of students bringing vape pens into school last year. Now, he's bringing in a rescue dog to put a stop to it.
“Depending on if they’re a nicotine vape or the vape, that is a violation of our code of conduct," said David Vincent, the school district's police chief.
Vincent looked into deterrents and mitigation tactics and found that a dog can be trained to detect the scent of a vape pen.
That's when Sami came into the picture. Sami is an eighth-month-old rescue dog that is training to sniff out vapes in school.
“We take the odors from the vape cartridges, and we teach Sami what those scents are," said dog trainer Trisha Cunningham. "Which basically the two main is nicotine and THC.”
Sami will be able to sniff out both THC and nicotine vapes. Cunningham said he is a quick learner. She runs drills with him to prepare him for different environments.
“He will literally just put his nose in it, sit and stare at Donna like, 'Hey, I see something,'” Cunningham said.
That is when she will know to check a backpack, locker or pocket.
Donna Bateman, Sami's handler, said they spent the last few weeks bonding and truly becoming partners.
“I’m very happy to be on this journey with Sami. There's so much to know about what he does, and he's so smart, and he's teaching me as well,” Bateman said.
This duo will float around Citrus County middle and high schools and can show up at any time, any day of the week. The district's police chief hopes this will make students think twice before bringing a vape into class.
