POLICE DOGS UNWELCOMED GUESTS AT GRAD CEREMONIES

The Province Mounties. Drug-sniffing hounds. Bag and backpack searches. Are
we talking airport?

No, grad night at Elphinstone Secondary School on the Sunshine Coast.

And mom Roxanne Gregory and son Jason, who's finishing his final year there,
are anything but enthused.

The Madeira Park residents got a form letter from Elphinstone not long ago
outlining the Big Day June 28 when, after the ceremonies, 121 graduates will
head out on a boat cruise of Vancouver harbour.

The note starts off with important last minute details about dress rehearsal
times, where to find extra tickets etc. Pretty ho-hum until paragraph four
where grads are warned if they plan to change between the school's do-do and
the cruise, they were to leave their duds in a labelled bag with security.
So the authorities can search them.

In case someone manages to slip something through, razor-fanged RCMP dogs
will keep tabs on party-goers at the ceremonies and the boat, as well. If
you're on prescription drugs, better see Miss Wilson.

No sense arranging transportation either: "Grads and their guests are not
allowed to leave the school during or after the ceremony," the warning reads
in bold.

"They will be transported to the wharf by bus. Anyone coming by his own
transportation will not be allowed on."

And don't think hiring a limo will get you out of the spotlight -- the
school and local RCMP have got them on side as well.

Does Elphinstone students have a few substance abuse problems, or what?

Not at all, says Gregory and 19-year-old Jason, nor has there been a history
of unruly behaviour at the school.

The grad was too swamped with last minute activities and final exams to take
up the cause, but mom wasn't. She fired off a letter to the assistant Deputy
Minister of Education last week, saying the Orwellian security measures were
"an unprecedented usurpation of the civil rights of graduating students and
their guests. Our children are being subjected to and threatened by
unnecessary, draconian measures."

"It says we are not to trust our children," she told the editorial board. "I
would not have wanted my grad to be remembered that way." Nor would we.

Is this what teen graduation ceremonies have come to? Surely, officials can
take the necessary precautions without deploying enough muscle to end a
prison riot.

What do you think? Are the school's safety arrangements over the top? Leave
us a brief comment, your full name and home town on our voicesline: (604
605-2029, fax: 605-2099 or e-mail: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca