RULING AGAINST DRUG SEARCHES UNDERMINES SCHOOL AUTHORITY

Re: Ottawa schools end random drug searches, May 11.

The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that children retain privacy
rights against drug searches by school officials, in to their
backpacks and even their lockers.

This notion undermines some core principles of law, citizenship, and
rights even as it supposedly upholds and expands them.

School premises and lockers are school-board (that is, government)
property. Locks are permitted to secure against theft by other
children, and the combinations have always been known to school
staff. There should be no case for privacy of locker content against
school officers.

Backpacks are personal property, but a search of them before entry to
school board property is no different in principle from airport
security checks.

Moreover, children are minors. We have not defined their citizenship
rights well, but they cannot have the full range of rights that are
held by self-governing adults. The schools act in loco parentis, and
must have some of the same authority as parents to maintain
discipline and security.

Or will the courts rule that children have privacy rights even in the
home, which is parental property?

Graham Barnes

Ottawa