STUDENTS DESERVE THE PROTECTION OF RANDOM DRUG SEARCHES

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that police dogs cannot be used
to sweep schools or public places for drugs without a prior,
justifiable suspicion of a crime. In a ruling on two separate cases,
the high court said that randomly using drug-sniffing dogs amounts to
unreasonable search and a breach of privacy rights.

The 6-3 ruling stressed that "reasonable suspicion" of a probable drug
crime must exist prior to dog-sniff searches in schools, malls, sports
stadiums and other public places.

I must say I'm not entirely comfortable with this Supreme Court
decision.

Central in my mind is that a school is not the same as a mall, a
sports stadium, a public bus or other public spaces and, having the
distinct identity it has, it should be governed by different rules and
conditions.

School is a vital place in the lives of our young, a place they are,
by law, forced to attend for much of their young lives. Within that
context, they have every right to expect to be protected and directed
in any way that ensures their safety and welfare.

This means that a school should, for one thing, be able to take steps
to prevent the illegal use or distributing or trafficking of drugs, a
circumstance which could result in behaviour or actions detrimental to
the students. Using sniffer dogs or any other device, these random
searches or searches based on suspicion should be conducted in the
best interests of the majority.

Maybe such intrusions don't sit well with adults, but children expect
these intrusions as part of the unique home-away-from-home school experience.