FOXBORO - A Foxboro High School honors graduate has joined her father in urging school officials to consider that police drug sweeps, even if legal, may have ill effects on hundreds of innocent students.

A small amount of marijuana was found in the sweep last Friday, which resulted in the suspension of eight students for five to 10 days. Annie Gallagher, 21, president of the Foxboro High School National Honor Society in 2005-06 and now studying public policy under former Gov. Michael Dukakis at Northeastern University, concedes that school officials had the right to invite a police drug sweep at the school last Friday.

But she and her father, Frank Gallagher, of Windsor Drive, maintain that in the absence of "probable cause" it's a bad idea to subject anyone, much less an entire school, to a police search.

"We in this country in the last several years have seen an erosion of our rights," Frank Gallagher, an engineer with four children, told the school committee.

He said people have been wire-tapped and spied upon. "It's been done in the name of safety. It's a slippery slope, and something that has to be given a lot of attention." Several speakers disagreed.

Brian Walton, an advisory committee liaison to the school committee, said the code of conduct is spelled out in the student handbook. The code prohibits possession of drugs on school grounds.

Juliette Weiss, student representative to the school committee, said she saw the sweep as just and "very effective."

"I think the procedure is a very sound one," board Chairwoman Martha Slattery said "We've probably put the fear of God into people. That's not a bad thing."

Superintendent Christopher Martes said schools can take action based on reasonable suspicion. "Our overarching concern is the safety of all students," Martes said.