No illegal drugs were found and no arrests were made during a routine sweep of Oxford High School on April 20.

Twelve dogs from the Oakland County Sheriff’s Canine Unit went through the building and parking lots.

“They confiscated e-cigarette [electronic cigarette] devices and the dogs sniffed out a couple vehicles that had residue (from drug use), i.e. somebody (had) smoked a joint in a car,” said Matt Johnson, a spokesperson for the district. “But they said that (residue) can linger for weeks.”

Despite this, no drugs or drug paraphernalia, other than e-cigarettes, were discovered on school property, according to Johnson, and “that’s why no arrests were made.”

The whole sweep didn’t take very long.

“This is all done during a (single) hour, so it doesn’t disrupt the actual classroom activity,” Johnson explained. “It happened during (the school’s) fourth hour and the (canine) units were all out of there before the fifth-hour bell rang.”

During the sweep, an individual filmed all the patrol cars lined up outside OHS and posted the video, along with commentary, on social media. This individual claimed the police presence was due to recent drug overdoses by high school students.

This is not true, according to officials.

“To speak to the false information circulating, there have been no drug overdoses at Oxford High School this year,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Patterson, commander of the Oxford Township substation, in a statement posted on the district’s Facebook page.

The sheriff’s canine unit uses these drug sweeps as part of its ongoing training exercises.

“This was a routinely-scheduled training that occurs several times a year at both Oxford High School and Oxford Middle School,” said Patterson in his statement.

Neither students nor teachers receive any advance warning as to when these sweeps are going to occur, according to Johnson.

“This is not a published thing, so the kids don’t know,” he said. “Nobody knows, not even the staff.”

“Not even me. I’m told after the fact,” added Superintendent Tim Throne.