Jim, these cases have stood up to SCOTUS scrutiny. There are two factors the courts take into account that make it less strict for schools. The first factor is the safety and security of the school. As was pointed out in the article originally posted, school officials have lower rules ons earches because they are responsible for the safety and security of the school. They are required to protect the students from possible threats (which will lead to interesting arguments outside the scope of this thread). Combined with the fact that it may be an administrative violation and not criminal, schools get to search students a lot.seamusTX wrote:The cases that were reported recently, someone talked. That is usually how these things blow up.
I don't know if any student refused to hand over the keys.
These searches probably would not stand up to constitutional scrutiny, because there is no probable cause. However, no one has taken the school districts or police to court.
- Jim
The second factor is the "in loco parentis" argument. Kids are minors and when they are at school, the school administration is acting in the place of their parents. We all know parents can consent to things for their minor children, including searches.Again, especially for administrative violations, schools get more authority to search this way.
The best case recently of a SCOTUS ruling on school searches was the girl who shared aspirin with another student. The search was finally found to be illegal, but not because of the lack of authority. It was only ruled illegal because the school had the twelve year old (IIRC) strip and searched her underwear. SCOTUS ruled this was excessive since there was no indication there was anything in her underwear and because of the low severity of the offense. When you read the case, it shows the fine line schools walk on exactly what they can and cannot do.
I have been waiting for a long time for a kid in Luling to be searched and argue about it. There is no school property that has parking. Everyone, students and faculty, park on city streets. But the school acts as if the streets are their property, even closing down one during football games for "permit" holders. I have told my kids to not consent to my truck being searched, but I don't know if a 17 year old student will really stand up to saying no to the school principal. One of mine would probably look forward to it, but the second (still in the school) is a little meeker and would probably give in.