K9 Search

 January 2023

Dear UHS Parents and Extended Community:

As you know, the welfare of our Uxbridge High School students, faculty and staff is one of our top priorities. In cooperation with the Uxbridge Police Department, school committee, and the broader Uxbridge community, we seek to ensure a safe place for teaching and learning.

Today, our school leadership conducted a check of the high school with assistance from the Uxbridge Police Department and a number of local police K-9 units. As part of this drill, each hallway was checked as we kept the school in a shelter-in-place lockdown. Students and staff members were in classrooms with the doors closed while a team of trained dogs, escorted by police officers and school administrators, swept the parking lots, main hallways, common areas, and random classrooms for prohibited substances. 

Many people, including parents, students, and community members, have shared their concerns about drug and alcohol use among young people. We also received feedback as part of last year's security audit that recommended additional steps in terms of safety drills that help maintain our security and well-being, including those related to narcotics and drugs. We emphasize these challenges in our work with school counselors, health and wellness curricula, and academic instruction, and we take every step possible to safeguard our school community from having this presence on campus. In short, we know that there are many great things happening at UHS every day because of a creative, diverse, and talented student body, and we know that steps like this will help keep all of them safer because of the collaboration between our school district and local law enforcement.

We want to emphasize that this is not the result of specific information or to suggest the presence of any illegal items, including narcotics or weapons, on campus. Rather, this is a precautionary measure, an effort taken to demonstrate how serious our district administration and public safety partners are about keeping our school safe.  Additionally, this exercise is valuable for the school, the K-9 units, and local police departments. Finally, we remind students and parents alike that possession of weapons or drugs on school grounds is a violation of the Student-Parent Handbook, which may also carry with it criminal consequences. As such, when students are found to be in possession of either narcotics or weapons, the situations are handled to the fullest extent of the Handbook and Massachusetts General Laws. 

We hope this initiative encourages our students to resist activity with illegal drugs and to make positive life-decisions. We hope this motivates some conversation about good and bad choices and the serious consequences of using or bringing drugs to school. If your student is struggling with drugs of any type, please know that resources are available, and please contact our school counseling department for us to confidentially work with you, should that assistance be needed.

Thank you for your continued understanding and support.

Sincerely yours,

Michael D. Rubin, Principal

Uxbridge High School