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After warning parents in advance, school officials relocated the students to their respective football fields, after having them leave their backpacks behind, at 9 a.m. sharp.
Led by the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, with support from other police departments,, four dogs were brought in to Pascack Valley High School in Hillsdale and three to the smaller Pascack Hills High School in Montvale.
They conducted random searches of the backpacks and lockers before the students were returned to the buildings less than a half-hour later. Then the dogs scoured both parking lots.
Hillsdale and Montvale police were on hand, as were members of the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, which gave the OK for the searches.
The state mandates that evacuation drills are held each year.
“This allowed us to take care of two things at once,” Gundersen said.
“We received about 10 hits,” the superintendent told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “As of right now, those are all false positives.
“Someone may have had drugs in a jacket pocket or in a vehicle before, or a friend may have had it — but that’s all speculation.
“We achieved our objective: We sent a message to students that drugs are not tolerated in our schools.”
Pascack Hills High School PHOTO: Courtesy BOB HAMMERSTEIN
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