Pubdate: Sun, 21 Apr 2002 Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON) Copyright: 2002 The Ottawa Citizen Contact: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326 Author: Tim Penner SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT HAVE SPECIAL SEARCH RIGHTS Re: Zero tolerance in schools sends the wrong message, April 13. Finally, a legal argument on the subjugation of human rights in schools. Many thanks to Lawrence Greenspon for entering the fray, giving credence to a situation I have been railing against for years -- since about 1970, actually. Try to imagine the reaction of employees of a company if they were herded into a room (against their will, by the way), and held there while their private possessions were sniffed and rummaged. The employer would never see the sky outside the courthouse again. But in a school, where the lawmakers say that students have fewer rights than accused criminals, the authorities are supreme. Imagine if citizens could be convicted on hearsay, without being permitted a defence or to consult with a knowledgeable advocate, and then be quickly and summarily punished without the right to appeal. I hope that the time is coming when schools must learn how to treat our children like citizens, like people. It should be quite a conundrum for an institution that has no problem allowing teachers to issue detentions to whole classes when one kid talks out of turn, and whose disciplinary protocols require confessions for alleged misbehaviour, and in whose offices one may often find armed and bulletproof-vested constables casually planning the next lockdown (as they, themselves, call it). I do not mean to suggest that discipline is not a problem in schools -- far from it. But so it is in society at large, where law-enforcers are required to conform to strict codes of evidence and behaviour. That schools have evaded such requirements is clearly indicative, I believe, of how children are truly regarded in this culture. Again, thank you Mr. Greenspon. And, please, don't stop now. It's nowhere near over. Tim Penner, Greely - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart