Rinkevics proposes bill that would allow to search pupils' belongings for security reasons

RIGA - Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics has submitted to the Saeima a legislative initiative on a safe school environment, the president's spokesman Martins Dregeris told LETA.

On Tuesday, the President signed and sent to the Saeima two legislative initiatives calling for amendments to the Law on Education and amendments to the Law on Public Holidays, Commemorations and Commemorative Days.

In his letter to the Saeima presidium, the president stressed that school safety must be a priority, without which a quality education process is unthinkable. He stressed that teachers, pupils and other staff have the right to feel safe in an educational institution.

"I believe that the legislator should take action to introduce a clear regulation for cases where there are justified concerns about a threat of violence or other significant security risks in an educational institution, which may be caused by dangerous substances and objects that may be in the possession of a pupil," the president said.

He proposed that the law should contain an explicit regulation granting the director of the educational establishment the right to search the personal belongings of pupils. 

The Education Law contains a regulation which requires parents to inform the head of the educational establishment of the child's state of health and of any other circumstances which may affect the education program and the persons involved in it. However, in practice, there are cases when parents have failed to provide the above information to the educational institution, and such failure to provide information has had a significant impact on the educational program and the persons involved in it.

"I propose that the law should also introduce that conduct of parents in failing to provide information to an educational institution as required by the legislation is recognized as an administrative offence," the president said.

The issue of security in educational institutions has once again been raised following incidents of violence in some educational institutions.