Twelve German shepherds were sent into Waltham High School on Thursday looking for drugs.
City officials say they found nothing in the search coordinated by the School Department and Police Department.
Superintendent Susan Parrella said dogs roamed the schools and sniffed lockers and other areas.
"We said last year to the School Committee that we would do this twice a year," Parrella said. "We asked police to potentially come in and they gave us notification (on Wednesday) that they could have the dogs come in (on Thursday). We said yes and told the staff."
Parrella said parents were notified on Thursday of the drill by a Reverse 911 recorded call from school officials.
"It's not done because we have drugs," she said.
School officials are calling Thursday's search a drill, but at least one parent is skeptical.
Waltham High School parent Andy Greene said he received the Reverse 911 call Thursday around 9 a.m. Green said the message from Parrella said the school was being searched by police dogs looking for illegal substances.
"The message indicated that it was a drill," he said. "It sounded from the message that it really wasn't a drill."
Greene said he questioned his son, a senior.
"Basically what he told me was he believed there were 12 German shepherds brought into the high school. I guess they were wandering around and they were sniffing lockers or other areas," Greene said. "He thought there were a few cases where dogs stopped at lockers ... it seemed to me like it was an actual search with consequences."
Greene said he was told students were kept in their classrooms during the drill as the dogs and police roamed the school.
"It sounded like a raid with no advance notice," Greene said. "The question I'm concerned about is was this a drill or was this an actual search and what precipitated that?"
Mayor Jeannette McCarthy said the search was merely a drill.
"There was nothing found ... everybody got a Reverse 911 call. We even got one here (at City Hall)," she said. "I haven't got any complaints from parents on this one."
Jeff Gilbride can be reached at 781-398-8005 or jgilbrid@cnc.com
