Pubdate: Mon, 15 May 2006 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2006 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n601/a11.html Author: Graham Barnes Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) RULING AGAINST DRUG SEARCHES UNDERMINES SCHOOL AUTHORITY Re: Ottawa schools end random drug searches, May 11. The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that children retain privacy rights against drug searches by school officials, in to their backpacks and even their lockers. This notion undermines some core principles of law, citizenship, and rights even as it supposedly upholds and expands them. School premises and lockers are school-board (that is, government) property. Locks are permitted to secure against theft by other children, and the combinations have always been known to school staff. There should be no case for privacy of locker content against school officers. Backpacks are personal property, but a search of them before entry to school board property is no different in principle from airport security checks. Moreover, children are minors. We have not defined their citizenship rights well, but they cannot have the full range of rights that are held by self-governing adults. The schools act in loco parentis, and must have some of the same authority as parents to maintain discipline and security. Or will the courts rule that children have privacy rights even in the home, which is parental property? Graham Barnes Ottawa - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman