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Strip Searches in Schools

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Strip Searches in Schools
Donovan Brown
Professor Stumpf
Criminal Justice 205
29 November 2012
The Fourth Amendment: Does it really protect “Everyone”? The Fourth Amendment is an essential part of the United States Constitution. It grants all United States citizens the right to not have illegal searches and seizures brought against them. With this being said, the most recent debate of the Fourth Amendment has occurred in the United States Public School Systems. Many kids and adults feel that students should have the same rights under the Constitution when attending school as they do when they are out. However, many school officials believe that to keep schools safe, it is essential to bend the rules a little bit. This paper will discuss the debate that is raging in schools, look at recent cases involving the Fourth Amendment and schools, and give my personal view on the Fourth Amendment in schools. The debate that is currently raging in public schools, is whether or not kids in public schools, can be strip searched or not. This has many parents up in arms, because they feel like this violates their children’s safety, as well as, their Fourth Amendment rights. The issue of the Fourth Amendment in schools was never really an issue, until the shooting at Columbine High School in April of 1999. This massacre really put an emphasis on security in schools. With this being said, many schools started to gear towards random locker searches and back pack searches. They never took it to the extreme of strip searches. However, with the recent school shooting at Virginia Tech and with the most recent massacre in Aurora, Colorado, many schools have stepped up their security even more. School officials are scared of having a massacre at their school. So by being over protective, they believe they can prevent one from happening. The debate has begun to surface and be more recognized because parents believe that strip searches are too far. When it comes to their children, most


Cited: Bracy, Nicole L. "Circumventing the Law: Students ' Rights in Schools With Police." N.p., May 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. Donahoe, Diana R. "Strip Searches of Students: Addressing the Undressing of Children in Schools and Redressing the Fourth Amendment Violations." N.p., Spring 2012. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://law.missouri.edu/lawreview/docs/75-4/Donahoe.pdf>. Feierman, Jessica R., and Riya S. Shah. "Protecting Personhood: Legal Strategies to Combat the Use of Strip Searches on Youth in Detention." N.p., Apr. 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. Jarret, Laura. "EXCESSIVELY INTRUSIVE IN LIGHT OF AGE OR SEX?: AN ANALYSIS OF SAFFORD UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT No. 1 V. REDDING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR STRIP SEARCHES IN SCHOOLS." N.p., June 2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlg/vol331/403-414.pdf>. Parker, Dennis. "Discipline in Schools After Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding." N.p., Summer 2009/2010. Web. 28 Nov. 2012. <http://www.nyls.edu/user_files/1/3/4/17/49/1001/Parker%2054.4.pdf>.
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