Speaking of grooming students for a surveillance state in the name of “safety,” Joanne Carroll and Rachel Grunwell report that New Zealand will let teachers search students:
Teachers are to get explicit powers to search children – potentially even strip-search them – for weapons.
The Government is to release draft guidelines applying to the classroom, schoolyard and to extramural activities such as camps and field trips.
In May, Te Puke High School mathematics head Steve Hose, 53, was knifed with a 10cm kitchen blade. A 13-year-old was taken into police custody. A Post Primary Teachers Association survey this year found at least two secondary teachers were seriously assaulted by pupils every school day.
The Ministry of Education search and seizure guidelines will be controversial. While strip-searching will apply only when weapons are suspected, teachers will also be able to search for drugs.
Read more in the New Zealand Herald.