What Language Do You Prefer

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Unreasonable Searches of Students in Schools

The September/October topic for Public Forum refers to the rights that students have in schools. In this case, we're talking about the searches of students. The topic is basically whether or not the Probable Cause Standard morally should apply to searching students in public schools.

I don't really know where people get the idea that the Constitution shouldn't apply to public schools or students/minors in general don't have any rights, but it's just wrong. There are places that the Constitution gives an age range for whom in which it is referring, but that it quite rare. Some examples include the right to vote and the right to run for Office. But in general, the Constitution is referring to all people, as specified by the words, We the People. Public schools are provided by the government, so therefore they need to abide by the Constitution. 

Currently, schools can search students based on "Reasonable Suspicion" which would be okay, except for the fact that "Reasonable Suspicion" is based on that what a reasonable police officer could/would infer. Because people other than police officers can search students, they can not be using "Responsible Suspicious" which invalidates the searches. 

Because students have the same rights regarding the fourth amendment as every other citizen of the United States and currently, schools are unreasonably searching students, the Probable Cause Standard ought to implemented in schools. Technically, non-citizens/people not lawfully here, would be exempt from the Constitution, so they could be subject to unreasonable searches. But that would require schools to (gasp) actually ask for proof of citizenship and that's a different story altogether. 

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