DIVISION'S DRUG TESTS PROBED

Ombudsman Looks At Privacy Issues

Manitoba's privacy watchdog is investigating to see whether a rural school
division's landmark proposal to conduct random drug tests on student jocks
complies with provincial laws.

Provincial ombudsman Barry Tuckett said yesterday his office has been in
contact with the Garden Valley School Division and informed officials they
are conducting the policy audit.

"I would love to know, and we will find out, whether their draft policy
addresses the issue of who gets access (to test results), how long they are
kept and when are they destroyed," provincial ombudsman Barry Tuckett told
The Sun yesterday.

"These are legitimate questions that the school division should have asked
themselves, and may have."

Draws Attention

If the proposal flies, Garden Valley Collegiate in Winkler would be the
first high school in Canada to mandate random drug tests. The proposal from
deep within Manitoba's Bible Belt has drawn attention from across the
country and if allowed to proceed, could be precedent-setting.

Garden Valley vice-principal Dan Giesbrecht said the school will co-operate
fully with the ombudsman and officials want to make sure the random drug
tests comply with the law.

But Giesbrecht said he doesn't understand why the proposed policy has
received so much media attention, particularly because U.S. schools have
been conducting similar tests for years.

"We're not going to contravene something that's the law of the land,"
Giesbrecht said. "If ultimately it comes down and they say we can't do it
or here's some things you can do and some things you can't do, we have to
be open to that. We're not rednecks out here in that sense."

Carolyn Duhamel, executive director of the Manitoba Association of School
Trustees, said other divisions are watching with interest as the case plays
out. But there is no indication anyone else in Manitoba plans to follow in
Garden Hill's lead.