Student search rules too vague, say schools

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Teachers fear new guidelines around searching students could leave them open to allegations of assault.

And they're worried they could also be reported to the Teachers Council as the draft guidelines fail to address the questions raised by real examples.

The Education Ministry guidelines, which are expected to be finalised this month, aim to assist schools to strike a balance between safety and enforcement and the Bill of Rights, which provides a fundamental right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.

Secondary Schools Association president Patrick Walsh said the guidelines were helpful as far as they went but they didn't indicate how a school should respond to specific examples.

"I've been disappointed that we gave them a list of scenarios that actually happened in schools and the ministry at this stage has decided they don't want to give specific advice [in the guidelines on how to deal with them]," Mr Walsh said. "I'm hoping they are going to change their mind about that."

Principals and teachers were concerned that if they conducted a search, they might be charged with assault or face a complaint to the Teachers Council said Mr Walsh, whose association represents 90 per cent of secondary school principals.

He said the present situation was fraught with difficulties.

He'd received a letter from a lawyer arguing that the use at school balls of a room to hold those thought to be intoxicated until they were picked up by a parent was unlawful detention.

The Government intends to pass school search and seizure laws in a review of the Education Act, should National win a second term.

Mr Walsh said if such laws were enacted it was hoped they would act as a deterrent.

Schools don't have authority to drug test students. Sniffer dogs and breath testers were able to be used at school balls because they were a condition of entry at a private function.

School pupils are not tested for performance-enhancing substances. Drug Free Sport New Zealand (DFSNZ) can only take samples from students who are members of national sports organisations which have adopted sports anti-doping rules.

DFSNZ chief executive Graeme Steel said he couldn't recall a school student being tested at a school sports event.

South Africa was moving to amend its laws to allow school children to be randomly tested for performance-enhancing drugs - and to grant authorities "search and seize" powers at schools where abuse was suspected.

DILEMMAS WITHOUT CLEAR ANSWERS

* A teacher catches two students on the back field smoking cannabis. They claim they got it from student A who has it hidden in his socks. Student A is now waiting in your office. Is the school entitled to search student A?

* Two students were involved in a fight on their way to school. Other students report to their dean that one of those students had taken a pair of scissors from the home economics classroom and said he was going to look for the other student at morning break and stab him. The student is on the way to the canteen. Does the dean have the right to stop and search the student?

* Two girls report that a third student was in the library showing a pornographic DVD on his laptop. He is now in your office. Can you search his laptop to recover the DVD?