NCJ Number
104793
Journal
Fordham Urban Law Journal Volume: 14 Issue: 3 Dated: (1985-1986) Pages: 629-684
Date Published
1986
Length
55 pages
Annotation
School officials should not be permitted to search students or their property without suspicion that each student searched has violated drug or weapons laws.
Abstract
Although the fourth amendment guarantees a student's legitimate expectation of privacy, current legal standards permit public school authorities to search a student's person and possessions if the conduct is deemed 'reasonable, under the circumstances.' The vagueness of the term 'reasonableness' becomes crucial when school officials seek to use this standard to justify invasive body searches, which require extreme invasions of a child's dignity and privacy. Public school attendance, which is mandated by State education laws, should not automatically subject students to severe encroachments upon their constitutionally protected expectations of privacy. To provide an additional safeguard to students, 'reasonableness' should be uniformly interpreted to require that school officials possess individualized suspicion of specific students prior to conducting a valid search. Under no circumstances should generalized, exploratory, or random drug or alcohol screening searches be permitted in public schools. 304 footnotes. (Author summary modified)