Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Marian Scott
Page: A6

MINISTER BACKTRACKS ON CORRECTNESS OF STRIP SEARCH

Quebec's Education Minister Yves Bolduc had to backtrack Wednesday on
earlier comments that condoned the strip search of a 15-year-old girl
in Quebec City, who was suspected of carrying marijuana.

In the province's National Assembly Wednesday he vowed to re-examine
the policy allowing such searches by school staff.

"We will ask a person external to and independent of the school board
to evaluate what happened, write a report, and, at that moment, we
will see based on the facts what we should do in the future," Mr.
Bolduc said.

He told reporters Tuesday that school officials can strip search
students on suspicion that they are selling drugs, as long as the
search is done "respectfully" and according to the rules.

He was commenting on a report saying staff of Neufchatel High School
in Quebec City instructed the student to remove her clothes and
checked them for drugs.

The school board that oversees Neufchatel, said in a statement on
Tuesday that it will launch its own investigation.

Marie-Elaine Dion, board spokeswoman, said in an email that such
searches are "exceptional."

"In our practices, only clothes are searched, not the individual.
There is no direct contact with the student to frisk them," she said.

Mr. Bolduc's press aide, Yasmine Abdelfadel, pointed out that student
strip searches are allowed under the rules outlined in a Surete du
Quebec guidebook for teachers, which was based on a 1998 Supreme Court
case.

The case involved a junior high school vice-principal who, in front of
a plain clothes RCMP officer, searched two students suspected of
selling marijuana on school property. The decision supported the right
to search students on "reasonable grounds," but specified that it must
be conducted in a "sensitive manner" and be "minimally intrusive."

Angela Campbell, associate dean of graduate studies in law at McGill
University, said telling a student to strip naked does not seem
"justified in the circumstances."
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