SCHOOLS TARGET DRUG ACTIVITY

Local school district administrators will have expanded rights to
search students for illegal drugs come September.

Under new policy guidelines, school administrators, with reasonable
grounds to be suspicious, will be able to search students, their
lockers and their vehicles.

The Coast Mountains School District's board of trustees approved the
new policy, applicable to secondary students, on April 6. The new
policy formalizes informal procedures already in place and adds new
ones.

Caledonia Senior Secondary vice principal Keith Axelson said
administrators will depend upon a lot of sources when determining
searches based on reasonable grounds.

"A search would be conducted if it was reasonable to suspect
possession," he said. "It could come from a report from a student or
parent, such as a smell (of drugs) or a witnessing of activity."

Student searches, allowed only on school property, are not part of the
present regulation, though Axelson said they were performed
occasionally.

Vehicle searches, also legal only on school grounds, is new to the
policy and also subject to suspicion on reasonable grounds.

According to Axelson, who has worked at Caledonia since May 2004,
there have been no incidents at the school where vehicles have been
searched.

"As long as protocol is followed, it gives us another tool to help,"
he said, adding he's in favour of the new measures.

All secondary students will now have to sign a rental agreement with
conditions of use for their lockers.

Lorrie Gowen, the school district chair, says the form, standard in
B.C., covers any possible legal issues of student privacy. She said
lockers were determined to be private property.

"But they're not renting the locker, they're renting the lock," she
said. "That's how we got around that."

The district will continue to have the right to perform random locker
searches with dogs trained to sniff drugs, if necessary.

The B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has fought against
similar measures introduced in the Abbotsford school district.

Micheal Vonn, of the BCCLA, said that boards are intruding on
students' right to privacy and that enforcement should take a
secondary role to treatment.

While privacy versus safety is a big issue, Gowen said the board has
sided with the overall safety of all students.

As for treatment of students with drug problems, Axelson says his
school offers counselling that focuses on awareness and prevention,
directing students to available resources.