Thayer School District has a new staff member

Thayer R-II School District has a new staff member on campus. Tank, a Dutch Shepard fully

trained K-9 for use in narcotics and tracking, has been graciously donated by the Thayer Police

Department. Unfortunately, Tank was put out of a job with the Thayer Police when Amendment

3 was passed in Missouri this past year. As a result, Thayer Police Department can no longer use

K-9 Tank because one of the narcotics he is trained on is the odor of marijuana.

Thayer School Resource Officer Stephen Bryant was the original handler of Tank when he was

first purchased for the Thayer Police Department. Then Tank was left with Office Brice

Thompson when Bryant took his present job as SRO for the school district. SRO Bryant has

willingly taken on the duties of caring for Tank a second time for the sake of the Thayer School

District.

Tank is a working dog, and that means that he will not be able to be petted and loved by students

or staff. In addition, Tank is a single-purpose dog, meaning when he detects narcotics, he will

give a passive (sitting, lying down, or freezing in place) indication of the odor of illegal drugs.

Having a K-9 on campus every morning, meeting students as they come in the door, and having

their daily walk through the halls will significantly deter and locate illegal substances on the

campus, not only for students but also visitors. The number of drugs that have been on campus

and the number of students that admit that they are using drugs has grown significantly in the

past two years, not only on our campus but elsewhere. The Thayer R-II School District has

strongly vowed to fight back against student drug use and distribution on our campus. Tank is

just an additional level of defense in keeping our kids safe, and we are thankful to the Thayer

Police and Officer Bryant for looking out for the Thayer School District’s best interest!

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