LEGAL EXPERTS DENY STRIP-SEARCHES NEEDED

WINDSOR -- A group of legal experts has recommended to the public school
board that under no circumstances should school officials be allowed to
strip-search students, even if a student's health were at stake.

The board's student-search committee now has a set of guidelines to develop
a clear school policy, in lieu of a search policy from the Ministry of
Education, say committee members.

Windsor police Insp. Brian Greenham, OPP Det. Sgt. Brian Haggith, Crown
Attorney Denis Harrison and lawyer Kenneth Marley told the committee
yesterday that school officials have a higher degree of latitude when it
comes to searching students than even the police, who need a search warrant
to poke through lockers or go through a knapsack.

But that power does not extend to strip-searches, even with reasonable
grounds a student is carrying contraband or weapons on his body.

"Would there be any circumstances where we strip-search a student in school
in the absence of the police?" asked trustee Jim Cooke, committee
chairperson.

Harrison said a strip-search, defined as a search that exposes a student's
"privates," is such an invasion of privacy that he couldn't imagine any
justification for it.

He said the perceived need to strip-search a student "is probably a good
time to bring in the police."

Even in a scenario that would prevent a student from overdosing on drugs was
not enough motivation to justify a strip search, Harrison said.

The student-search committee, composed of trustees, board members and school
officials, was formed after 19 Grade 9 boys were strip-searched at
Kingsville high school in December.