Yellowknife (Dec 06/99) - Pokemon is a wanted man on playgrounds and in classrooms around the North these days.

Educators say students have become too distracted with the popular trading cards and related paraphernalia, said assistant principal Bill Gowans, of Sir Alexander Mackenzie school in Inuvik.

"Six weeks ago, we brought in a policy where we sent a letter home with kids saying don't send them to school with Pokemon," Gowans said.

"We had a lot of trading going on in the washrooms. When the kids were supposed to be in class they were sneaking out and trading."

Gowans said if kids are caught with the contraband cards, they are seized and held in the office until parents come to pick them up.

"We've become involved in arguments about who owned these cards," he said.

"There are no identifying marks on them and a number of parents were embroiled with other families about who owned the Pokemon -- who had it last, or when it had last been seen ... it became very counter-productive."

He said despite the crackdown, kids continue to bring Pokemon to school.

"They're still here, the kids keep them in their pockets -- we know they are," he said.

Fort Smith has also had to establish a policy of no Pokemon allowed on the school grounds, said JB Tyrrell Elementary principal Craig Walsh.

"We've had incidents ranging from cards mysteriously going missing to cards mysteriously missing from a teacher's desk to a playground incident where there was bullying because of cards," Walsh said.

"Nothing serious, but serious enough that we nipped it in the bud before it started."

Fort Smith has adopted the same confiscation policy as Inuvik, Walsh said.

"If they bring them to school now and we find them, they're confiscated and put into the school safe until such time as they can be picked up by the parents," he said.

"They're not given back to the child -- they are given to the parents."

Dudley Johnson, principal of Chief T'Selihye school in Fort Good Hope, said the cards are not a problem in his school.

"Pokemon is not a big thing here in this community -- in fact, it hasn't even reached here," Johnson said. "The kids don't even mention it. They're more into wrestling and the WWF cards."

Johnson handles the trading cards by organizing events where the trades can be monitored.

"They trade cards but we have an organized trade day," he said.

"What you have to do with this type of thing is embrace it and organize it. I've even acted as auctioneer -- it makes it fun and keeps it organized."