GREENSPON CALLS FOR AN END TO ZERO-TOLERANCE POLICIES

Ottawa Lawyer Says School Board Is Taking A 'Non-Thinking' Approach To
Solving Problems

An Ottawa police drug raid inside an Orleans high school classroom ends
with the humiliation of a 15-year-old boy, who is suspended because his
jacket may have smelled of marijuana, according to a dog.

A seven-year-old Manotick boy is suspended from school for a week for
bringing his parents' African letter opener to his Grade 2 class for
show-and-tell.

A 15-year-old Cornwall-area boy is expelled, arrested and jailed for more
than a month for writing a fictional story that invoked fear in some fellow
students, as he was assigned to do.

"It's like reefer madness, 40 years later," Ottawa lawyer Lawrence
Greenspon said after taking the bizarre case of Chris Laurin, a Grade 10
St. Matthew High School student who was suspended from school this week
after a police dog took an interest in his ski jacket during a "drug lockdown."

"Perverse, scary, dangerous," are some of the words Mr. Greenspon offered
yesterday in attempting to explain the course of action taken by the
Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board with his young client.

Whatever you call it, enough is enough, Mr. Greenspon said yesterday in
calling for an end to "zero-tolerance" and the reintroduction of "common
sense" in Ontario's schools.

Mr. Greenspon held a news conference at his Elgin Street office to talk
about a story that has made national headlines since it was reported in the
Citizen. Chris wants the school board to publicly apologize and erase the
suspension from his record, or face a lawsuit.

"What is happening here should scare people -- it's getting out of
control," Mr. Greenspon said of the Ontario government's Safe Schools
Policy. "What's going to happen is you're going to have safe schools, but
you won't have any kids in them. I think what they have to look at is a
reconsideration of zero-tolerance. It's an across-the-board, non-thinking
way of responding to problems. It's a notion that has served its time.

"With zero-tolerance, you take away the discretion, you take away the
application of common sense, and that's what the problem is here."

The principal called police to the Orleans school on Tuesday morning to
search students and lockers for drugs. Apparently, a police dog indicated
to the officers that Chris's grey ski jacket smelled of marijuana. Chris
said he was taken to the principal's office while police and school staff
searched his locker and pockets. They found no drugs. Even so, he was
suspended and sent home.

"If anything, it has made me more popular because everyone is talking about
it," the boy said yesterday. "I was embarrassed because, as I was brought
to the office, I was seen by my other teachers on suspicion of drugs."

Chris denied ever smoking or carrying marijuana, but said he has seen other
students doing it "behind bushes and bus shelters."

He said the school initiated two police drug searches last year.

The student said he was "nervous" about his return to school yesterday
after serving his two-day suspension.

Following the news conference, he went home to change into his St. Matthew
school uniform. His father, Michel Laurin, accompanied Chris to school and
signed him back in. As part of his punishment, Chris was supposed to have
met with a drug counsellor upon his return, but the school rescinded that
requirement yesterday.

Mr. Laurin met with principal Andre Potvin and vice-principal Dan Kennedy.

"Right now, it's in the hands of higher powers," Mr. Laurin said, adding
the meeting went well. "I have to wait for them to come to the right
decision. If you make a mistake, you should admit it."

Spokesman Terry Shaw said the Catholic board would make no further comment
"because there is a possibility this may become a legal issue."

Mr. Greenspon said he expects a response from the board on Tuesday.