Above Watch: After the release of a report into a recent strip-search incident, Quebec’s new Education Minister agrees student strip searches are “humiliating.” Caroline Plante has more.
QUEBEC CITY — An independent report has concluded high schools in Quebec should never strip search their students.
Former Crown prosecutor Fabienne Bouchard was asked by the province to review circumstances surrounding the search of a 15-year-old from Quebec City suspected of carrying drugs.
READ MORE: Did a school strip search violate a Quebec student’s civil rights?
The incident led to the resignation of Quebec’s Education Minister Yves Bolduc.
Last February, Yves Bolduc said strip searches in schools were fine, as long as they were done “respectfully.”
The teenager’s family complained she had been humiliated and quickly hired a lawyer. News of the case travelled the world over, with the minister accused of lacking judgement.
READ MORE: Quebec’s education minister alters position on school strip-searches
Bolduc’s replacement, François Blais, released an independent report into the incident on Wednesday.
The report recommends that Quebec schools stop doing strip searches on students and leave that work to police.
“We accept the recommendations and we’ll do our best to put them in place,” said Blais.
“The cooperation between schools and police will be necessary.”
The Couillard government said it will review the Cadre de référence sur la présence policière dans les établissements d’enseignement and ensure every school is subject to the same rules.
The opposition maintained it should have been done months — if not years — ago, and the report was unnecessary.
“The minister could have made that decision without a report,” said the Parti Québécois’ Education Critic, Nicole Léger.
More tax dollars were wasted, added the leader of the Coalition Avenir Quebec, François Legault.
“Of course it can hurt a person and it’s not normal that you ask somebody, a director of a school, to do that,” he said.
“I don’t understand why it took so much time to arrive to this conclusion.”
The teenager’s lawyer, François-David Bernier, said clearer guidelines were good news. But he noted the damage had been done; the family is suing the school and school board for $380,000.
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