An exotic dancing advocacy group’s eyebrow-raising bid to recruit strippers at high school job fairs has been unequivocally rejected by the Vancouver School Board.

Tim Lambrinos of the Adult Entertainment Association of Canada argues that strip club owners have a right to seek out potential employees at job fairs if the schools hosting them are publicly funded.

“We are taxpaying businesses and legal entities, and there’s got to be a policy that allows us to participate in those types of things too,” Lambrinos said.

A draft version of a recruitment poster obtained by CTV News appeals to students who are “visually appealing and comfortable with [their] naked body” to come earn money for their university tuition.

“No actual sex or sex acts to occur,” it guarantees.

Mike Lombardi, vice chair of the VSB, says the proposal is laughable.

“When I first heard it I thought, ‘Is this an April Fool’s joke that I missed?’” Lombardi told CTV News.

“It’s totally inappropriate, unreasonable and out of the question and they will get nowhere near our schools.”

The association says its facing a labour shortage due to pending federal laws aimed at preventing immigrants from entering Canada’s illegal sex trade.

The Conservatives’ Bill C-57 would allow immigration officers to reject foreign workers who are considered at risk of being humiliated, degraded or sexually exploited – a broad definition that can apply to exotic dancers.

And the number of immigrants issued visas for exotic dancing has already plummeted since Stephen Harper took office in 2006. There were 424 issued in 2004 under Liberal Paul Martin, but only 17 since the Conservatives gained their first minority government.

But not everyone in the industry is concerned. Danny Fillippone, owner of the Penthouse Strip Club in Vancouver, says he’s never had a problem recruiting talent within Canada and calls Lambrinos’ approach “completely unnecessary.”

“I think it’s crazy,” Fillippone said. “I wouldn’t be in favour for it either. I don’t think that’s the route that you even have to go to.”

Lambrinos’ association insists its attempt to recruit at school job fairs is not a publicity stunt, and members plan to follow through with the proposal – even if it means handing out flyers on the street.

With a report from CTV British Columbia’s Maria Weisgarber