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
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman