TORONTO

Ontario has a zero-tolerance policy for strip searches of students by school staff, Education Minister Liz Sandals says.

After the strip search of a 15-year-old Quebec City high school student by her school principal, Quebec Education Minister Yves Bolduc allowed that such searches are permitted if done respectfully.

“Ontario schools do not have school staff conduct strip searches, never, in any school,” Sandals said Wednesday.

School boards across the province are governed by a school-police protocol and the Education Act which prohibits strip searches of students, she said.

In the Quebec case, the student was apparently searched by a female principal and female staff member after she was suspected of selling drugs.

The protocol in Ontario requires school authorities to notify police of any suspected drug activity rather than take matter into their own hands, Sandals said.

“We’re quite clear that when it gets around to searching for drugs, you call the police and the police will then do things according to their Criminal Code powers,” she said.