Searching in Schools Essay examples -- Education Students Search Illeg

Searching in Schools The U.S. Supreme Court and state courts have very gently both bestowed and limited Fourth Amendment rights upon public school students in a series of cases over several decades. Recent cases may indicate that the delicate balance between student rights and school safety procedures is strongly leaning towards the rights of school authorities to actively isolate and reduce perceived causes of school violence. Starting in 1968 and culminating in 1984, the law of the land concerning the status of students compared to school authorities shifted to a more constitutional basis. Prior to that time, student rights in school were defined by the common law doctrine of in loco parentis, which for centuries posited that school officials were given the right, duty, and responsibility to act in the place of a parent. Their right to act included the power to search students for illegal items, or for items merely considered to be prohibited under state or local law or school district policies, withou t the warrant or probable cause conditions mandated for all other citizens under the Fourth Amendment. State laws, as upheld by their state courts, permitted such school action when, for example, student searches were deemed to be in the best educational interests of all the students. Any search based upon the much lower and non-constitutional standard of right problem was found to be in accord with the doctrine of in loco parentis; it was accepted by the courts as necessary and reasonable in light of public necessity to maintain school discipline and order and the longstanding social concept of the parental powers of school authorities. The searching of students produces a sense of security and safety in schools. Student ... ...ice-type school violence prevention strategies. Law-related education is a fresh approach to reducing the causes of school violence early and continually throughout a students education. It is a generic, interdisciplinary direction to education combining particular kinds of content related to rules, laws, and legal systems with active instruction, flexible to any grade level and intended to continue through all grade level. Its aim is strictly to instill non-aggressive social problem-solving abilities, while also helping students become good citizens. Its method is to integrate into all curricula illustrations of common, student-relevant issues in the context of legal rights and responsibilities. Bibliography: Brownfield, Currie, Margid, McKelvey, Norris, Wade. Rights & Privileges Opposing View Points Green haven Press Inc. San Diego, CA 1990