GIVE POLICE POWER TO MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE

Sir: In April 2002, police, with a canine sniff team, made a random
search of St. Patrick's High School. They found a backpack belonging
to a student (known only as A.M.) containing 10 bags of marijuana
and 10 magic mushrooms.

In April 2008, Supreme Court justices ruled 6-3 to toss out charges
against the student. Their rationale was that reasonable suspicion of
a probable drug crime must exist prior to dog sniffing in schools,
malls, sports stadiums and other public places, excluding airports.

Schools are the only place on this list where children have to
go.

(The justices) spoke of unreasonable search and breach of privacy
acts, making it illegal to search backpacks, briefcases, purses,
suitcases and, I guess, any other container suitable for carrying
drugs.

Prosecutors were appealing lower court decisions and seeking to
maintain the legality and just plain common sense of mass searches
which are seen as important tools in the battle against drug use. I
would guess that they also could see no reason for making an
appointment with drug dealers as to the time of a planned search.

What kind of an environment do we want to set in our
schools?

Is it this kind?

Sixty-two per cent of high school students said that drugs were used,
kept or sold in their school (National Centre on Addiction and
Substance Abuse). "Availability is the mother of use." (CASA
President Joseph Califao Jr.)

25.6 per cent of students (257,60 of them) used cannabis in the year
2007 in Grades 7 to 12, most frequently used by Grade 12 students (44
per cent, increasing from four per cent in Grade 7) - "Drug Use
Among Ontario Students"

I do not pretend to understand the workings of the Supreme Court, but
I do understand the pain, hopelessness and the waste of the
drug-addicted life of a young son - my son who we think was
introduced to drugs at school.

I wish with all my heart that there had been a search, random or
otherwise, in my son's school in another town at another time.
Perhaps I would know today if he is cold, hungry or on what city
streets he is trying to feed his habit. I might even know if he is
alive.

Please, for the sake of the kids who are exposed daily to this deadly
killer, let the police do their job. The innocent won't suffer, but
the guilty may still be saved.

Marian Keith,

Petrolia