Pubdate: Thu, 19 Feb 2015
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2015 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Page: A10

UNWARRANTED ABUSE OF AUTHORITY

The strip search of a Quebec teen at her school for drugs, by school
staff, is an unjustified breach of her privacy and assault on her
dignity. If school officials can defend such a move to root out a bit
of marijuana, searches of body cavities can't be far behind.

School boards in Manitoba and elsewhere in Canada ought to take this
example of abuse of authority as a lesson in the perils of unchecked
arrogance. The stripping of the teen was initially defended by
Quebec's government, but now it appears it, too, has recognized the
offensive nature of the search.

Education Minister Yves Bolduc is reviewing provincial guidelines that
permit strip searches of students, but said they are allowed in some
circumstances and only if they are done respectfully.

There may be an extreme case in which a strip search is required to
protect other students, but this one was far from it. The 15-year-old
sent a text to a friend offering to sell drugs -- something she said
was a joke. She was taken to an office and ordered to disrobe behind a
blanket held by one female staff member while another searched her
garments, including bra and underwear, for marijuana.

No pot was found. She said she was not allowed to call her parents
before the search took place.

Hardly a case of clear and present danger. Drugs on school property
are a problem, generally, but as drugs go, pot is the least of the
worries. There was no indication weapons were involved.

And there were other, more reasonable, ways to deal with the issue.
School officials might have called her parents, told her to empty her
pockets, her locker and her backpack.

A student could have found any of that insulting and an embarrassment
or an overreaction. But it would have left a young person's dignity
intact.

Finally, school officials have the ability to send a student home for
a day if they are still uncertain as to a teen's involvement in the
alleged misconduct. They can call police in for serious misconduct. It
depends on the credibility of the reports it gets and the level of
threat.

All of these actions will send a clear message to, and protect,
students. Instead, what the students at Quebec City's acole Secondaire
de Neufchctel learned a week ago is they are easy marks for teachers
and principals who are insensitive to the boundaries of personal
privacy and quick to use unwarranted measures, disproportionate to the
suspected misconduct.

The Supreme Court has ruled school officials can search students if
they have reasonable grounds to believe rules have been broken. This
is to protect students, to keep order and discipline so the school is
a safe place conducive to learning. That decision, however, was about
a principal searching two students, not stripping them. Indeed,
officials at other schools admit they frisk students, they search
lockers and backpacks. All reasonable actions any student or parent
would understand.

Manitoba schools have seen cameras installed in their halls and
bathrooms, and police have become commonplace in some. There are
circumstances that call for extraordinary measures, such as threats to
individuals or property, and when they arise, quick action must be
taken and police can be called in.

But the Quebec City incident shows that for some, young people are too
easy a mark. There is a risk of a creeping authoritarianism as the
right of students to privacy, especially of their person, is chipped
away by an overriding concern for safety, discipline and order.

Stripping students and going through their underwear is not just
humiliating. It teaches them their rights are fragile, indeed. acole
Secondaire de Neufchctel reduced those rights to a polite fiction.
Quebec's government needs to state the Neufchctel strip-search crossed
the line and write rules that will curb similar abuses in the future.
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MAP posted-by: Matt