Montreal students upset after being asked to drop their pants and undergo search at school | CBC News

“It felt like being a prisoner,” said Andrew Forgione, a 15-year-old Grade 9 student at LaSalle Community Comprehensive High School.

Andrew told CBC News he was taken into a room by two staff members on Friday, and told to pull his pants down to his knees. 

“That shouldn’t be happening at a school. It’s traumatizing for a victim. It isn’t normal,” he said.

“You’re cornered in a room, you have no phone, you can’t call your parents or anything. You feel forced.”

You’re cornered in a room, you have no phone, you can’t call your parents or anything. You feel forced.​​​​​– Andrew Forgione

Andrew says he was suspended after staff found a vape in his sock during the search.

Another student said he was asked to shake his underwear and bend over “to make sure nothing was hiding anywhere.”

Andrew’s mother attended the protest on Monday and said the school had not informed her of how he was searched.

“I was notified by the vice principal at LCCHS that my son was on a day suspension and that was it,” said Laura McCarthy. 

WATCH | Search at school ‘traumatizing,’ teen says:

Montreal teen searched at school calls the experience ‘traumatizing’

Grade 9 student Andrew Forgione says staff at Lasalle Community Comprehensive High School took away his phone, instructed him to drop his pants revealing his boxers and undergo a search. 0:49

McCarthy said when she got home, her son was upset by what she described as a strip search.

McCarthy said she intends to file a complaint with the school. 

“I was devastated,” she said. “My son was violated.”

The Lester B. Pearson School Board says it is investigating and in a statement said it did “not believe there was any malicious intent underlying these actions.”

A spokesperson told CBC News the board took issue with the term “strip search” because the teachers had not had physical contact with the students and had not ordered them to remove their underwear. 

Darren Becker said the school has some right to discretion when searching students if it has “reasonable grounds,” though he did not specify for what. 

The statement said that “despite this extremely regrettable incident, the school board stands firmly by its policy that students cannot bring any illicit substances (including vapes) onto school grounds.”

Nicholas Pietramala, a Grade 9 student, and Ryley Vaughan, in Grade 8, say they were also searched. 

“Then they asked me to drop my pants and shake my underwear,” Nicholas said. “I turned around, had to, like, bend a bit to make sure nothing was hiding anywhere.”

What kind of search can a school conduct?

The Quebec Ministry of Education said it wasn’t aware of the incident, but said the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 1998 that under certain circumstances, school authorities may search a student.

The ministry cited that ruling, noting, the search “must itself be reasonable and appropriate in light of the circumstances presented,” and that its extent “will vary with the gravity of the infraction that is suspected.”

An unplanned search could be conducted — the decision provides as an example — if a student is believed to be carrying a dangerous weapon, but wouldn’t be justified if a student was believed to have gum despite it being prohibited by school regulations. 

As for whether what the LCCHS students were submitted to consisted of a strip search, Becker said the school board’s lawyers had determined that a “full search” was a more accurate term. 

A 2001 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, defined strip search as “the removal or rearrangement of some or all of the clothing of a person so as to permit a visual inspection of a person’s private areas … or undergarments.”

The decision also said strip searches inevitably lead to a “serious infringement of privacy and personal dignity” and noted police “must establish reasonable and probable grounds justifying the strip search.”

Andrew, the student who was suspended after the search, said he felt uncomfortable returning to school after what happened on Friday. 

“There’s no way, really, to put it. You see the teacher who made you do it, it’s kind of awkward, it’s kind of weird for you,” he said. “You’re just speechless.”

A friend and fellow student who attended the walkout Monday, Luca De Pasquale, said he wanted to show his support. 

“My friends were violated. It’s privacy. It’s your body,” he said. “They should have gotten the police involved if they really wanted to check.”