School Policy Involving Students' 4th Amendment Rights

Some of the nation's public schools are beginning to resemble medieval fortresses with armed guards stationed at entrances equipped with metal detectors. Although these steps have helped to prevent the introduction of weapons onto school grounds, more problematic are other types of contraband that inevitably find their way into the nation's schools, including tobacco, alcohol and drugs of all types, as well as pornography. When school officials believe violations of laws or school rules have been committed, they must of course take action to address such violations but there are some important issues that must be taken into account concerning when such searches are permissible and how they can be conducted in order to pass 4th Amendment muster. To determine what these issues are and how they affect school policies involved students' 4th Amendment rights, this paper provides a review of the relevant...
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