Boy's drug case goes to Supreme Court

Privacy, body search `of national interest,' prosecutor says

OTTAWA A Nova Scotia boy who brought marijuana to a juniorhigh school
dance has set off a legal battle that will be settled by the country's
highest court.

"Every parent, teacher, school official and police officer in the province
should have an interest in the outcome of this case," said Crown prosecutor
Paula Taylor in an interview yesterday.

Mona Lynch, the lawyer representing the boy, a minor who cannot be named,
agreed. "It is important to define the relationship between a teacher and a
student as to what rights a student has in a school setting," she told The
Daily News.

In October 1995, at a school dance at George P. Vanier Junior High School
in Fall River, the boy, then 13, was asked to accompany viceprincipal Mike
Cadue to his office. Cadue, in charge of enforcing school policy, had heard
rumors from other students in the three weeks before the dance that the boy
had been involved with drugs. There were even some indications the boy was
selling the drugs.

On the day of the dance, Cadue was told by a student that the boy "will be
carrying tonight" and, based on this information and the previous rumors,
he contacted the Sackville detachment of the RCMP.

Early in the evening he sought out the boy he suspected and another boy and
brought them to his office.

When the police officer arrived, Cadue had the suspect turn out his pockets
and lower his pants.

Finding nothing, Cadue noticed a bulge in the boy's sock. The boy was
hiding a small amount of marijuana in a plastic bag in his sock. The police
officer then told the boy he was under arrest for possession of a narcotic,
read him his rights, and told him he could phone his parents.

The other student was also searched, but nothing was found, and he was
released.

At trial, Youth Court Judge William Dyer ruled the search was illegal
because it breached the boy's right to privacy, and the evidence must be
withheld from a trial.

The Crown appealed the ruling to the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, and in a
unanimous judgment released in April 1997, Dyer's ruling was overturned and
a trial ordered that could include the marijuana as evidence.

The boy's lawyer appealed again to the Supreme Court of Canada, and it has
agreed to hear the case.

"The Supreme Court has said that this is a matter of national importance by
granting the right of appeal," said Taylor.

While the crime is considered small a similar case with an adult would
bring a fine of $100 the case has attracted attention because it will
compare the privacy rights of students with the social obligations of
teachers.

"This case has never been about the offence. It touches on what rights the
schools have to protect students from drugs," Taylor said.

She suggested school officials have a duty to seek out illegal drugs and
find those responsible for introducing them. "The information that the
school officials had was so compelling that they had the duty to search the
student," she said.

But Lynch, despite the appeal court ruling, still believes the
viceprincipal and the police officer breached the boy's rights under the
Charter of Rights.

She suggested the Crown is trying to severely restrict the right to privacy
in schools in a similar way that has already been accepted for prisons and
border crossings.

"Conducting a search based on rumor is a breach of Charter rights," she said.

No date has been set for the hearing.