Male students at a rural Manitoba elementary school were asked to show their underwear to a staff member who was investigating a plumbing problem.

A letter sent home with students at Carman Elementary School in Carman, Man., says the request was made of most boys in Grades 4 and 5 at the school.

“As part of an investigation into a boys’ bathroom incident, a staff person asked Grade 4 and 5 students to show their elastic underwear waist band above their pant waist for the purpose of ascertaining which child or children were involved in the incident,” reads the letter from the school principal.

Robert Fidler, a Grade 5 student, told CTV Winnipeg that the “bathroom incident” involved boys “flushing underwear down the toilet and … clogging it up.”

Fidler said the staff member told the boys in his class to line up, then called them into the library and asked them to show the top part of their underwear.

“I was feeling embarrassed,” he said.

According to the principal’s letter, the probe was “not done according to our investigative methods for matters of this nature” but was “not intended to be salacious nor exploitative.”

The school later brought in a guidance counsellor to tell students that adults should never ask children to show their underwear, and that children can say no to suchrequests.

The Prairie Rose School Division has launched an investigation into the incident.